Baseball is the most perfect of games, solid, true, pure and precious as diamonds. If only life were so simple. Within the baselines anything can happen. Tides can reverse; oceans can open. That's why they say, "the game is never over until the last man is out." Colors can change, lives can alter, anything is possible in this gentle, flawless, loving game.

Discovered W. Somerset Maugham in about 5th grade. Didn't understand the plots, but loved the descriptions.

It is hard to compare the eras, but Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb from the past, Sandy Koufax and Roger Clements from the present.

I am an old-fashioned storyteller. I try to make people laugh and cry. A fiction writer's duty is to entertain. If you can sneak in something profound or symbolic, so much the better.

The Great Gatsby, the finest novel ever written.

I lost my wife Barbara to cancer few years ago. I would give whatever time I have left to spend one more day with her.

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