Someone once described the pitching of a no-hit game as like catching lighting in a bottle.

Read! Read! Read! And then read some more. When you find something that thrills you, take it apart paragraph by paragraph, line by line, word by word, to see what made it so wonderful. Then use those tricks next time you write.

Curt Flood, of course, was in a class by himself, a true hero.

I think it is worse [in 2015] for a mid-list author such as myself. You either have to sell like Stephen King or go with the small presses where there is no money. I was lucky to have been in the right place and time for many years.

He bats like a lightning rod.

The crack of the bat, the sound of baseballs thumping into gloves, the infield chatter are like birdsong to the baseball starved.

Yogi Berra, Bill Lee, they were irreverent, poked fun at the stodgy owners and managers.