We Got to Play Baseball is a sometimes poignant but largely comedic collection of 60 baseball vignettes told by 40 contributors, most of them baseball Hall of Famers and former All Stars. Very few of these stories have previously been shared publicly.
Back jacket endorsers include Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., inspirational New York Yankee no-hit pitcher Jim Abbott, and FOX Sports TV broadcaster Ken Rosenthal.
Having played for fourteen Major League seasons with nine organizations, Olson made a lot of friends and was on the sending and receiving ends of many beautiful pranks, several of which are shared in the book.
Over the course of two recent baseball seasons, Gregg collected each of these 60 stories in person as he traveled from city to city working as an advance scout. After games he’d go back to his hotel room, transcribe what he’d heard in an email and send it to Ocean.
Ocean then edited, polished, and researched the back-story connected to each story and storyteller, as well as for its principal characters. This was important to the authors; they wanted casual readers to be able to enjoy every story without having to be familiar with the person’s background.
This insight has proved to be very popular with readers and reviewers.
We Got to Play Baseball shares on-the-field action and off-the-field hijinx, including some of baseball’s most historic moments.
The authors owe a gracious tip of the cap to all the great baseball men who helped make this collection possible. Forty Hall of Famers, All-Stars, former players, writers, and umpires contributed. The variety of what they shared is phenomenal.
In alphabetical order these men are:
Jim Abbott, Larry Andersen, Bruce Benedict, Bob Boone, Chris Bosio, Jeff Brantley, George Brett, Mike Cameron, Gary Carter, Tony Clark, Will Clark, Doug DeCinces, Rob Dibble, Doug Flynn, George Frazier, Jim Fregosi, Brian Giles, Goose Gossage, Mark Grace, Mark Gubicza, Jack Howell, Rex Hudler, Tim Hudson, Ferguson Jenkins, Eric Karros, Mike Krukow, Mark Lemke, Gary Matthews, Ed Montague, Jim Palmer, Jamie Quirk, Tracy Ringolsby, Brooks Robinson, Cookie Rojas, Mike Scott, Joe Simpson, Don Sutton, Ralph Terry, and Robin Ventura.
We Got to Play Baseball is available in printed paperback and eBook format from all major on-line retailers. It’s a fun, inexpensive read; feel free to grab your copy today.
Dozens more legends patiently sit on the bench in the authors’ bullpen, as Olson and Palmer are hard at work on volume two.
For any questions concerning personal appearances, interviews, or bulk purchases, please contact Ocean Palmer.