Big Hair and Plastic Grass

Nancy Faust, Tommy John... and Me

I am incredibly thrilled to accept The Baseball Reliquary's invitation to deliver the Keynote Address for their 20th annual Shrine of the Eternals Induction Day, which will be held Sunday, July 22nd at the Pasadena Central Library. This year's inductees include legendary White Sox organist Nancy Faust and White Sox/Dodgers/Yankees/Angels pitcher Tommy John, both of whom will be in attendance.

The Baseball Reliquary is a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history — so it should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me or has read my baseball books that I've a big fan of the organization and its mission for a long time. (I mean, their collections include Dock Ellis's infamous CURLERS, people!)

Previous inductees to the Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals include such personal heroes as Dock Ellis, Dick Allen, Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, Bill "Spaceman" Lee, Luis Tiant and Jim "Mudcat" Grant, so it will be a huge honor for me to speak at this year's induction ceremonies, especially since Nancy Faust, Tommy John and fellow 2018 inductee Rusty Staub all played such formative roles in my early baseball fandom.

The induction (which is free and open to all) will be held almost three years to the day since Katie and I moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, and I can think of no better excuse to return to Southern California for a few days. If you love baseball and live in SoCal, please mark your calendars for this fantastic event!

 

Chicago Reading Alert!

This Saturday, March 4, my friend Joe Bonomo — one of my favorite writers — and I will be doing a reading at The Book Cellar in Chicago's Lincoln Square. Joe's got an excellent new book of essays out called Field Recordings From The Inside, which he'll be reading from; I'll be reading from a new work in progress — a chapter from what I hope will be my next book project. Unlike Big Hair and Plastic Grass and Stars and Strikes (both of which will be available for purchase at the Book Cellar), this one will be more personal, as well as more music-oriented... and the chapter I'll be reading from involves the elegant gentleman pictured above.

Two great writers + one great independent bookstore (where you can also buy wine and beer by the glass, btw) = a swell time. The event starts at 6 p.m., and the Book Cellar is located at 4736 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. For more info, call the store at 773-293-2665. Hope to see some of youse there!

Also, as long as I've got your attention, here's a few of my favorite pieces from the last couple of months...

From Rolling Stone: Why Slap Shot is the Greatest Sports Movie of the 1970s.

From Guitar Aficionado: My interview with the great Ricky Gervais about music, guitars, and his new Netflix film, David Brent: Life on the Road.

From October: The Soul Battles of 70s Macrobrew.

And from The Hardball Times (you didn't think I could stay away from baseball forever, did you?): The World Series of Love - The Rolling Stones at Shea Stadium.

And finally, I'm still very much in the market for a full-time editorial or digital content job. If you're reading this and know of any available position in Chicago that requires a great editor, writer or content manager, please give me a shout...

Rock on,

Dan

 

 

 

Give the Gift of 1976!

The holiday season is once again upon us, and along with it the scramble to find the perfect gifts for the ones we love.

Well, if you've got a baseball fan on your Xmas list, why not get them a hardcover first-edition of my book Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of 1976, autographed and personalized by the author himself?

That's right, folks — just send me $30 via PayPal (see link below), and I'll send you a copy of my critically-acclaimed journey into the heart of the Spirit of '76. The Big Red Machine, Billy Martin's Yankees, Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, Charlie Finley's fire sale, Oscar Gamble's haircut, Bill Veeck's wooden leg, the White Sox shorts, Phillies Fever, Ted Turner's Ostrich races, the first free agent re-entry draft — it's all here, along with Salem witches, Jimmy Carter, the nationwide Bicentennial celebration, the Ramones' first album, Frampton Comes Alive, Taxi Driver, Rocky and (of course) The Bad News Bears, along so many other crazy things that made 1976 such a memorable and important year, both for major league baseball and the USA as a whole.

The $30 covers shipping and handling (offer only applies to the continental US, so contact me for shipping rates if you're in Alaska, Hawaii or other countries); be sure to let me know your giftee's favorite 70s team or player when you're checking out via the PayPal link, and I will find a way to work that information into the signature.

I only have a limited amount of these hardcovers left, so act like Mickey "Mick the Quick" Rivers and snap 'em up while you can!

Favorite team or player

Thank you for your support; I hope you all have a fantastic (and 'fro-tastic) holiday season! Oscar Gamble would want it that way, maaan...

Rock on,

Dan

"Hey, Yankees..."

On Monday, August 8, I'll be doing my only Chicago-area book-signing for the paperback edition of Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76 , in conjunction with a rare 35mm showing of one of the biggest film hits of 1976 (not to mention the greatest baseball film ever made): The Bad News Bears.

This joyous event will take place at Chicago's legendary Music Box Theater, located at 3733 N. Southport Ave. in Chicago. I will be co-hosting the event with WGN radio's Nick Digilio, and copies of Stars and Strikes will be available for sale in the lobby via those fine folks at The Book Cellar, my favorite local indie bookstore. Tickets for the screening are $12, or $9 if you're already a member. The actual screening begins at 7 pm, and will be followed by a discussion of the film led by Nick and myself.

If you've already read Stars and Strikes, then you know how much this film means to me; the one-two punch of The Bad News Bears and the sudden emergence of spectacular Tigers rookie Mark "The Bird" Fidrych went a long way towards making ten-year-old Dan transfer his obsession with war comics and G.I. Joe dolls to all things baseball-related. If it wasn't for the Bears and the Bird, my life might have taken a much different path, and I almost certainly wouldn't have written Stars and Strikes or Big Hair and Plastic Grass many years down the road. So it's a huge honor to be able to present this wonderful film — whose slyly subversive script still holds up remarkably well 40 years later — on a big screen.

If you've never seen the film before, or it's been years since you've watched it, here — via a piece I wrote for Rolling Stone this spring — is a little reminder of why it remains the greatest baseball movie ever made.

There are no Cubs or White Sox games scheduled that night — so if you're in or near Chicago, I hope you'll come out and say hey. Buttermaker would have wanted it that way, man...

 

A Trip To The Mound

The man pictured above is Mike LaCoss, former hurler for the Reds, Astros, Royals and Giants from 1978-91. Last week, I had the pleasure of guesting on Trip To The Mound, a podcast Mike does with Roy Giovannoni for the iBaseball channel. I was "there" to talk about Stars and Strikes (now out in paperback!), but our wide-ranging talk wound up covering everything from sabermetrics to thrash metal — and I also got to pick Mike's brain a bit about his experiences with the Big Red Machine. Go HERE to listen to the whole thing...

Also, for those of you who can't get enough of my yakkin', I did two radio appearances last week with some old friends: Rich Kimball of WZON in Bangor, Maine, and Ray Steele of WIBC in Indianapolis. Both gents really know their baseball, and I am immensely grateful for their enormously supportive of my books through the years. Go HERE to listen to my chat with Rich, which includes some Lemmy- and Strat-O-Matic-related tangents; and go HERE to hear my chat with Ray, in which we talk about Mark Fidrych, Dick Allen, and whether or not you'd rather have Bill Veeck or Ted Turner as the owner of your favorite baseball team.

Stars and Strikes — Now In Paperback!!!

The first time you see your new book in print is a huge thrill — but it's an almost equally huge thrill to get a paperback edition of said book in the mail, because it means that enough people bought the hardcover version to make a paperback printing worthwhile for the publishers. So I'd like to thank everyone who has already bought Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76 for making the paperback possible!

And for those of you who haven't bought it yet — or already did, and dug it enough that you'd like to buy many, many copies for your baseball and pop culture-obsessed acquaintances — the paperback edition officially hits the streets via St. Martins Griffin on February 9. You can pre-order copies from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or of course from your friendly neighborhood indie bookseller.

I probably won't be doing a ton of reading events in support of the paperback — full-scale book tours require copious amounts of time and money — but I'm sure I'll schedule a few things in Chicago and the Midwest before the summer is out, especially since 2016 is the 40th anniversary of the Bicentennial. Watch this space for future updates!

Skylight Books Reading — Sunday, July 12!

 

Please join me and my fellow baseball author Jeff Polman at LA's Skylight Books this coming Sunday, July 12, for a lively late-afternoon reading and signing event. Jeff will be reading from his new novel, Mystery Ball '58: A Season-Long Whodunit, which takes place in San Francisco during the Giants' first season by the Bay. I will be reading from Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76, and our reading will be followed by a Q&A discussion that will touch upon, among other things, baseball in those particular seasons and how they compare to the current state of the game.

The event starts at 5:00 pm, and copies of both of our books will be available for purchase and signing. Skylight is one of LA's finest independent bookstores — and they hosted one of my Stars and Strikes events last spring — so I'm pretty stoked to do another event there. This will also be my last reading event in Los Angeles before I relocate to Chicago at the end of the month, so please come by, say hello, and get yerself a signed copy or three of my books while you still can!

Skylight Books is located at 1818 N. Vermont Ave. in Los Feliz. Call 323-660-1175 for more info.

 

Doin' The Do In Burbank

This is Jim "Mudcat" Grant, 21-game winner for the 1965 AL champion Minnesota Twins, and a man who once sported what were perhaps the greatest pair of muttonchops ever seen on a major league diamond. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting and chatting with Mr. Grant during a 2002 event at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, and will never forget the riotously off-color stories he told me about his old roommate Vic Power. So it pretty much goes without saying that I'm extremely stoked and honored to be appearing with him this October 7 on a panel presented by The Baseball Reliquary as part of their "Baseball in the Swinging '70s" exhibit at the Burbank Central Library, located at 110 N. Glenoaks Blvd in scenic downtown Burbank.

The exhibit, which runs from now til October 30, takes a look at baseball's most colorful, contentious and tumultuous decade through photographs, artwork, and such sacred 70s artifacts as Dock Ellis's hair curlers, (which Dock himself donated to the Reliquary) and charred 45s from Comiskey Park's "Disco Demolition Night". Much of the exhibit's written content has been excerpted from my book Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s. If you live in Southern California and love 70s baseball, you won't want to miss this!

You also won't want to miss the October 7 panel, which will also include Jeffrey Radice, director of the acclaimed new Dock Ellis documentary No No: A Dockumentary, which is now playing in theaters around the country and is also available via iTunes, Amazon Instant, Vudu and On Demand via select cable providers. Dock will understandably be one of the main topics of conversation — Mudcat was his teammate on the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates — but we will be hitting plenty of other 70s baseball topics, as well. The panel will start at 7 p.m. and run for an hour, and I will be signing copies of Big Hair and my new Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76 (both of which will be available for purchase thanks to the fine folks at Skylight Books) afterwards. Hope you can make the scene!

Both the exhibition and the panel are FREE and open to the public. For more info, call the Burbank Central Library at 818-238-5600.

 

Signed Copies of Stars and Strikes: Get 'Em While They're Hot!

Attention, 70s baseball fans — I have returned from the book tour wars with a small stack of 1st edition hardcover copies of my latest book, Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76. If you weren't able to make it to any of my reading/signing events this summer, but you'd still like to obtain your very own signed copy of the book that Rob Neyer calls "Tremendous," just go to the PayPal link below and place your order; they are $35 per copy — $30 plus $5 shipping and handling. Do it soon, though — I only have eight copies to sell, and they may disappear quickly. Makes for great autumn reading, especially if your team is already out of the hunt and/or you're trying to stave off the encroachment of football upon your consciousness...

Favorite team or player

When ordering, be sure to include the name of who you would like me to sign the book to (especially if it's not you) and if there's any particular team or player from the era that you (or your recipient) were into. Also, if you want a signed copy of my previous book, Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s, I still have plenty of those available, which you can order HERE.

On another note, I'd like to thank everyone at the American Cinematheque who helped in setting up the Bad News Bears screening/Stars and Strikes book-signing at Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, and everyone who came out for it. It was a total blast, and such a treat to see it on the big screen. And of course, seeing my name "in lights" on the marquee just below my all-time favorite baseball film was a beautiful way to cap an incredible summer.

 

 

 

 

The Bad News Bears Meet "Stars And Strikes"!

Whenever I watch the original 1976 version of The Bad News Bears (about once a year, on average), I always try to keep track of how many different brands of beer Morris Buttermaker (as brilliantly played by the late, great Walter Matthau) downs during the course of the film. I inevitably wind up getting distracted by the excellence of the script and the wonderful chemistry between Matthau and the kids on his team (including Tatum O'Neal's Amanda Whurlitzer, above right) and forget to count... but I'll have a pen and notebook with me tomorrow night (Thursday, August 28), when The Bad News Bears will be screened by the American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

That's not all I'll have on hand, however. The fine folks at the American Cinematheque have asked me to introduce the film — a huge honor, especially considering my life was basically changed forever when I saw BNB in a theater in the spring of 1976 — and do a book-signing at the theater for Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76, as well.

So if you're in the LA area tomorrow evening, come on out to the historic Aero Theatre at 1328 Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, when the greatest baseball movie ever made and the greatest book ever written about the 1976 season will truly be "together again for the first time". The event starts at 6:30 pm; I will be hanging out in the theater lobby to sign copies of Stars and Strikes, which will be available for purchase courtesy of Hollywood's Larry Edmunds Bookshop. The film will be shown at 7:30 pm. Tickets for this special screening are $11; they are $9 for seniors 65+ and students with valid ID, and $7 for members of the American Cinematheque; advance tickets can be purchased HERE via Fandango.

It should be a really fun evening, and I hope you'll join me for it.