Posts tagged A Metaphysical Baseball Novel

Deadball – Anatomy of a Book Cover

If you’ve read the first chapter of my book, Deadball, A Metaphysical Baseball Novel, you know that Union Park, home to the 1890’s National League Baltimore Orioles, was once located at the corner of Guilford Avenue and East 25th Street in the Harwood section of Baltimore.  The original design for the book cover contemplated superimposing an 1897 picture of the old Union Park playing field over a picture of what has been built in its place.  Taking that picture, however, from one of the roof tops of houses located on East 24th Street, proved difficult to recreate, so we opted to use the picture of Union Park that now appears on the front and back covers of Deadball.

That picture of the front entrance to Union Park on East 25th Street, circa 1895, was provided to me courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society and appears in this blog, also courtesy of the MHS.  In March 2011, my brother and I made one of my many pilgrimages to the former site of Union Park on East 25th Street to take pictures of the houses built in place of Union Park’s old, wooden grandstand and main entrance.  We brought with us a copy of the 1895 Union Park photograph in an effort to recreate the shot.

East 25th Street, Baltimore, former site of Union Park

As you can see, there is a red brick building that appears in both the present-day photograph of East 25th Street and in the background of the1895 Union Park photograph.  That building, at 321 East 25th Street, currently houses the St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center.  The building provided us the necessary reference point for taking our photograph for the book cover.  In an attempt to get the proper vantage point, I took a picture of East 25th Street with the 1895 photograph also in the shot.  The actual picture that graces the cover of Deadball is set forth below.

Deadball Book Cover Photograph, East 25th Street, Baltimore MD

Huntington Park Publications’ graphic designer extraordinaire, Jim Morris, among other things, superimposed the 1895 photograph over the above picture, creating a ghostly image of the ballpark and the spectators on the sidewalk.

Because of differences in the photographic equipment used to take the two pictures, I was unable to recreate the exact 1895 shot.  As such, Jim Morris pieced together additional shots of the tops of the buildings and elongated the sidewalk to create the picture as it appears on the book.  For aesthetics, the shot of Union Park was placed a little bit to the east of its actual, former location.

DBS

Upcoming Deadball Signing Events

I have several signing events scheduled for the D.C . Metro area in the coming two weeks.

First is the 38th Annual Meeting of the SABR Bob Davids Chapter on Saturday January 28, 2012 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Rosslyn at Key Bridge, 1900 North Fort Myer Drive, Arlington VA.  The meeting is open to SABR members and costs $30 per member or guest ($15 for students).

Second is a house party signing on Sunday January 29, 2012 in Bethesda, Maryland.  If you are interested in attending the house party signing, please reply to this post and I will provide the details.

Third is the Huntington Park Publications launch party on Saturday February 25, 2012 at the Civic Building in Downtown Silver Spring, Maryland.  See the separate post below for more details on that event.

DBS

Post-Holiday Season Deadball Kindle Sales Picking Up

And now it’s time for another installment of “Blowing My Own Horn.”

As part of my compulsive checking of top 10 lists, I noticed this afternoon (January 6th at 5:00 pm) that Deadball currently resides at Number 18 on Amazon.com’s list of “Top Sellers in Baseball” for Kindle.  For posterity, here’s a screen grab as proof:

Amazon.com's Top Sellers in Baseball - Kindle.

Okay, that’s enough applause for now.  Everyone please take your seats.

DBS

Deadball Surges to No 1 on Amazon Kindle “Hot New Releases” in Baseball

They say “you’re only as big as your last hit.”  Well, as of 2:15 p.m. on December 21st, Deadball, A Metaphysical Baseball Novel is ranked No. 1 on the Amazon.com Kindle “Hot New Releases” for Baseball:

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, these lists are updated hourly so who knows how long Deadball will remain at No. 1.   But at least I’ve got the screen grab to prove where Deadball, and I, have been.

DBS

Deadball, A Metaphysical Baseball Novel Now Available on Kindle

Deadball is now out on Kindle.   Just in time for the last final, frantic buying days of the holiday season.

Here’s the link:

amazon.com/Deadball-Metaphysical-Baseball-Novel-ebook/dp/B006N34PCW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1324298119&sr=8-3

After only three days on the market, it currently resides (as of 7:00 A.M. Monday December 19, 2011 (Happy Birthday Dad!)) at number 48 on the Kindle Best Sellers List for Baseball Books.

Amazon updates the list hourly so it’s anyone’s guess where it will reside at 8:00 A.M. today and beyond.

DBS

 

 

Deadball – An Amazon Top 10 “Hot New Release In Sports Fiction”

As a kid, my brother and I used to listen to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 Sunday mornings on WPGC.  Whether we heard the entire broadcast depended upon if our parents dragged us to the 8:00 mass, insuring that we were home in time for the 10:00 start time.   Somewhere in my house are cassette tape copies of shows I recorded by placing a Radio Shack microphone next to the speaker of my Motorola AM/FM radio.  Included among those tapes, undoubtedly, is the four-week stretch that Tony Orlando and Dawn’s Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree topped the charts in 1973. My brother and I  kept waiting week after week for that song to be dethroned, unappreciative, as we were at the time, of that song’s brilliance.

Since then, I have had a thing for lists, whether they be ranking the top ten presidents of the United States or to the top 10 portable dehumidifiers (thank you Consumer Reports).  So imagine my surprise when I learned today that after just one week in publication, Deadball was ranked (as of 12/1/11 at 4:00 pm EST) number 10 on Amazon.com’s list of “Hot New Releases In Sports Fiction.”  Not sure how that happened, but I’ll take it.

The Screen Grab Goes To 11, But Deadball Is No. 10

It’s far too early to say where making this list ultimately will rank in my “Top 100 Deadball Moments,” but early indications suggest it is shooting up the charts, with a bullet.

DBS

 

Deadball Arrives Five Years After Conception

Hello All:

The story told in Deadball first came into focus the winter of 2003, during a drive from Chicago’s Midway Airport to Rock Island, Illinois.  Working then for the Department of Justice, I was on my way to review Department of the Army documents for a case being litigated in the United States Court of Federal Claims. My traveling companion, agency counsel for the Army, was kind enough to listen to my concept for the book as we drove along I-88.

After leaving DOJ in October 2006 to be a stay-at-home dad (SAHD), I began work full time on the novel.  By the spring of 2007, I had a first draft, the ending of the book having come to me the previous fall while waiting in the parking lot for my youngest son to finish soccer practice.

By the spring of 2010, many drafts and rewrites later, Deadball was, I felt, ready to publish.  I was wrong, and for the next year, with the book continually crowning at about 9 cm, I labored to deliver the book for publication.

On November 23, 2011, Deadball arrived.  I hope you will buy a copy of the book and read it.  I encourage you to post a comment on this website, or a review on Amazon.com.

Please check back here for more blog postings.

DBS

 

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