My new book

[dave_heller]

Sorry for the complete and total shill, but i have a new book coming out April 1, It is not about the Browns, but several Browns are included. Anyway, it is called Facing Ted Williams: Players from the Golden Age of Baseball Recall the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived.

Some of the former Browns who contributed are Ned Garver, Virgil Trucks, Duane Pillette, J.W. Porter, Chuck Stevens, Bob Savage, Al Naples, Don Larsen and more.

It is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Anyway, appreciate you possibly passing this along to anyone who might be interested. Sorry for the intrusion. I return you back to your regularly scheduled Browns message board.

Update: There's now a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/FacingTedWilliams) as well for anyone interested. Thanks.

[westsidegrounds]

I believe Garver & his slider had pretty good success against the Kid.

[dave_heller]

I believe Garver & his slider had pretty good success against the Kid.

Williams used to say that, but the stats say otherwise. I talked with Garver probably longer than anyone else and he offered up some great stories and insight.

[philliesfiend55]

Sorry for the complete and total shill, but i have a new book coming out April 1, It is not about the Browns, but several Browns are included. Anyway, it is called Facing Ted Williams: Players from the Golden Age of Baseball Recall the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived.

Some of the former Browns who contributed are Ned Garver, Virgil Trucks, Duane Pillette, J.W. Porter, Chuck Stevens, Bob Savage, Al Naples, Don Larsen and more.

It is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Anyway, appreciate you possibly passing this along to anyone who might be interested. Sorry for the intrusion. I return you back to your regularly scheduled Browns message board.

Update: There's now a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/FacingTedWilliams) as well for anyone interested. Thanks.

It's great to see that we have a published author in our midst and not just someone who has self-published but a writer with national distribution connections. I hope it's quite successful. Good luck with it next Spring upon it's release.

[dave_heller]

Just throwing this back out there to let anyone who is interested know that the book is being released April 1, but you can purchase it now on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, among others. Thanks!

[Herr28]

I came across a copy of this book, but I can't remember where I saw it. I love digging tunnels through used book stores, but we don't have any good ones around the Fort Hood area. I have to go down closer to Austin to find one, and I used to live around so many in the Twin Cities. Anyway, I think it must have been while looking for specific books on either ebay or amazon. I did pitch both your books (the 1944 Browns book we talked about a couple years ago, and this Ted Williams book) in a thread in the history forum.

Just thought I'd let you know in case you suddenly get some messages asking questions or anything. I told the guys up there that you would come around in this forum.

[Herr28]

Mr. Heller,

I was reading through the acknowledgements in the beginning of your book As Good as it Got: The 1944 St. Louis Browns, and I see that you listed Jack Smalling (for the use of his extensive address book). Is that Jack Smalling from Ames, Iowa? Jack Smalling that played with, and helped organize I believe, the Ames Merchants semi-pro team back in the 1960s and 1970s?

If that is the man, he was my high school baseball coach and I was friends with his son. In fact, this summer we just had our 20 year high school reunion and I saw him. We talked about Satchel Paige pitching in Brookside Park, the home park of my high school team, and Jack got a hit off Ol' Satch. If that is a different Jack Smalling, I apologize for the confusion. I knew the man had an amazing history with and knowledge of baseball. That was just incredible to see his name (if it is the same) in the book.

When I saw him for the first time at the first get together for our reunion weekend, his son introduced us and asked Jack if he recognized me. I thought no way, not after spending so much time riding the pine for him 20 years ago. He squinted at me, his eyes did a quick up and down glance, and then he asked if I were a right-handed throwing, left-handed hitting speedster. It was more a statement than a question. I was left for a couple seconds with my mouth open staring in disbelief, before grabbing his hand and telling him how good it was to see him.

[dave_heller]

Yes, that is likely the one and the same Jack Smalling.

[Herr28]

That is great. His son emailed me a copy of the newspaper story from the mid-1960s when Satch came to town with the KC Monarchs to play that game at Brookside. There, sure enough, in the big photo is my old coach rapping his base hit off the old time master! Jack joked in the article that perhaps Satch was just being nice to the coach and laid one in there for him!

He does have an amazing head for baseball knowledge, I found that out again this past summer. I even thought of using him as a source for a possible thesis topic.

Anyway, thanks for the reply. I appreciate it. I am waiting on my copy of this book (mentioned in the OP) to come in the mail.