Mike Shannon – Baseball by The Letters

Autograph-savvy Pete Rose biographer Kostya Kennedy set for CASEY awards banquet March 15

Tom Owens — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 17:13:00 +0000

I approve.

March 15 is the date for the 32nd CASEY Banquet. Spitball Magazine honors a top baseball book each year.

Getting 2014 winner Kostya Kennedy, author of Pete Rose: An American Dilemma, to attend as guest of honor is genius. A standing ovation to Spitball Magazine wizard Mike Shannon. If America can have a poet laureate, why not a baseball book ambassador? I nominate Mike.

Too many journalists have been unwilling to examine autographs as part of their biographies of baseball icons. The autograph is what links the hero to the ordinary fan.

Kennedy observed the Rose signature factory in full production. He wrote about Pete’s signings, even considering what the real value of other baseball autographs might be. Sample Kennedy’s writing on his sterling blog and you’ll clamor for his Rose book, too.

Getting Ty Cobb’s Grandson’s Autograph

Tom Owens — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 19:51:00 +0000

Here’s news you can use!

“Spitball Magazine is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2013 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year is: Heart of a Tiger: Growing Up with My Grandfather, Ty Cobb by Herschel Cobb and ECW Press.

Mr. Cobb will be presented with his CASEY Award, a specially-made blue & gold Louisville Slugger, at the 31st Annual CASEY Awards Banquet from 2-4 p.m. at Crosley’s Sports Bar & Eatery, located at 4910 Vine Street, St. Bernard, OH (a suburb of Cincinnati).

For more information, please visit: www.spitballmag.com.”

Editor Mike Shannon added:

“The book is also still in the first edition, which is important in the book collecting world and the future re-sell value of a signed copy. Also, … and this is very cool … Mr. Cobb told me today that he will be signing in GREEN INK … just as his famous grandfather did!

I will ask him to inscribe all books with a special “CASEY Awards Banquet, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 9, 2014” inscription, in addition to whatever else you ask him to inscribe, such as “To Billy, a great fastball hitter at UK.”

I hope you will be present at the Banquet, but even if you can’t make it (and I know some of you live too far away to come), I can get a book signed for you and mail it to you afterwards. So … please let me know if you want me to include you … and how many copies … in my order to the publisher.

Cost will the cover price, $25. Plus $3 if I have to mail your copy. Spitball will make a few bucks on each copy we sell, but I hope you don’t mind that. Good cause and all that.

And please, forward this email to anybody I left out whom you know will be interested in coming to the Banquet or ordering a signed copy of the book.

My best,
Mike Shannon, Ed.
Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine”

What’s The Best Baseball Book Of 2012?

Tom Owens — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 15:12:00 +0000

Help Mike Shannon Honor
The Best Baseball Books
Of 2012

This blog likes baseball letters. There’s a special power in letters.

Did you like a new baseball-related book this year? If so, you have two choices.

1. You could write a letter to the author. Tell the author why you liked the book.

2. You could SHOW the author how you liked the book by nominating the book for an award.

3. Why not do both?

To help make an author’s day is one Mike Shannon. (No, Cardinals fans. The OTHER Mike Shannon!)

Here’s the invite he’s shared:

Please consider this your invitation to nominate baseball books for the 2012 CASEY Awards, the 30th Anniversary of the Award!

You may nominate up to 10 books but only books which you have actually read; no hearsay please.
All books to be nominated must carry a 2012 copyright.

Only works published as real physical books are eligible; works published ONLY in an electronic format are NOT eligible.

You may send in nominations via email or via USPS to: Spitball, 5560 Fox Road, Cincinnati, OH 45239
Deadline for nominations: October 31, 2012

NB (for publishers)* Publishers do not have to formally Nominate their books. All baseball books received for review by Spitball are automatically considered for the CASEY Award. However, we must have a finished copy of the book in the Spitball office; galleys and proofs do not meet this requirement. If your title is listed on the “Current Baseball Books” page of our website, then we do have a copy of the book. If the title is NOT LISTED, then we DO NOT have a copy of it and we need one to be sent to the Spitball office, please, asap.

Thank you for your cooperation and important contribution to the CASEY Award process.

Mike Shannon, Editor
Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine
5560 Fox Road
Cincinnati, OH 45239
www.spitballmag.com

Check out his website. When it comes to baseball literature, Mike is the genre’s biggest booster!