Growing up near St. Louis, I fell in love with baseball at an early age. I rooted for my hometown team, the Cardinals, and played the game through high school. But throwing 75 miles per hour only got this southpaw so far. When my prep career ended, I hung up my cleats and focused on college, though I never lost my love for the game. Whether I’m attending a Mariners game, watching a Cards game on TV, or traveling to a minor-league ballpark, a typical summer day usually involves a ballgame.
I love reading books and writing almost as much as baseball. As I kid, I published my own newspaper using a word processor (I’m dating myself here), read any baseball-related book I could find, and served as sports editor for my high school yearbook. I ultimately put my writing aspirations on the back burner and pursued a career in medicine.
But then came 2020. During the pandemic, I used writing as a way to pass time and maintain my sanity. I began contributing long-form articles to SABR’s BioProject, which became the genesis of my first book, Runnin’ Redbirds: The World Champion 1982 St. Louis Cardinals (McFarland 2023).
For my second book, I wrote about a relatively obscure and overlooked event in baseball history. Season of Shattered Dreams (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024) tells the story of the 1946 Spokane Indians, a minor-league team that was involved in a tragic bus accident.
My third book, Before They Wore Dodger Blue (August Publications, 2025) is about the Dodgers’ 1968 draft class, considered the greatest of all time, and the 1970 Spokane Indians, a minor-league juggernaut featuring most members of the vaunted ’68 class.
Originally from Illinois, I now make my home in Washington state with my wife, Gina, and our cats, Edgar and Ralphie, and our dog, Eleanor Rigby.
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