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I got a long e-mail from a fellow SABR-dude for those of you who might be in town on the second.
I will be in Washington D.C. and Baltimore during this coming week to sign books and discuss them with anyone who shows up when I’m signing at local bookstores. (See the schedule below.)
I’ve got two new books out this year, one of them – “Wrong Side of the Wall” – is especially of interest to SABR members. It’s the biography of Ralph “Blackie” Schwamb who in the mid-1940s was one of the greatest baseball prospects in the country. Scouts were comparing him with Bob Feller. He was signed by the St. Louis Browns in 1946. At the same time that he was working his way up into the majors – joining the Browns in Washington D.C. to start against the Senators in July, 1948 – he was working in the off season in Los Angeles as a gangster. In 1949 he committed a murder, was caught and sentenced to life in prison. During the 1950s he became famous in baseball circles, compiling a remarkable pitching record for his prison teams against surprisingly tough competition. He was paroled in 1960 and came very close at the age of 34 to making a comeback. It is a fascinating and at times very strange story – sort of a true crime / sports biography; a baseball noir.
Here’s what some other people have said about “Wrong Side of the Road”:
“Given that our nation has watched a parade of ballplayers from Darryl Strawberry to Ken Caminiti march to the beat of their own self-destruction, it's useful to remember that there's nothing terribly modern about the spectacle of an athlete throwing it all away. Schwamb was a gifted righthander who pitched only a dozen games for the St. Louis Browns before being jailed for the brutal murder of a Long Beach, Calif., doctor in 1949. He was also a legman for the notorious gangster Mickey Cohen. Stone, whose uncle played in a semipro league against Schwamb, hoped to discover "how someone [like Schwamb] with so much right in his life could go so utterly wrong."
“Stone found the answer not in the rough-and-tumble world of the 1940s minor league circuit, which he vividly evokes, nor in the even rougher, more sordid world of organized crime in L.A. Rather, he discovered it in a broken-down old man he encountered living in a metal-slab-sided house in Lancaster, Calif. For four days Schwamb told Stone colorful yarns about his tragic, booze-soaked life. But on the fifth day, when Stone confronted Schwamb about the night he beat Dr. Donald Buge to death with his fists, Schwamb replied with a flood of tears. Then, collecting himself, he told Stone to "get the hell out of here before I [mess] you up." Clearly Blackie Schwamb was doomed to destruction for a simple reason: He couldn't find the courage to look at his reflection in the mirror.” – Sports Illustrated
"Blackie Schwamb's story is classic tragedy--flawed, physically brilliant, unable to deal with his demons. This is not a "sports" story, it is Eric Stone's brilliant study of a flawed man with a great talent who had such a talent that he started against Bob Feller, went to The Mob and ended up pitching in prison leagues. Stone weaves the life of this tragic figure against the tapestry of the lifeline of both L.A.and The Mob. It is brilliant, chilling and real."
—Peter Gammons, three-time National Sportscasters and
Sportswriters Association National Sportswriter of the Year, ESPN Baseball Tonight studio analyst
"Eric Stone's riveting account of Blackie Schwamb's great baseball talent and equally great character defects is so much more than a sports story. It is a fascinating trip along a life on the edge, in and out of trouble, golden opportunities and missed chances. Damon Runyon would have been proud to tell the tale of Blackie."
—Tom Brokaw, longtime NBC anchorman and best selling author.
"Eric Stone... does a brilliant job recounting the tragic turns of Schwamb's life. Of all the baseball books coming out this spring, this is the one I couldn't put down."
—John Curtis, The San Diego Union Tribune
"Possibly one of the most disturbing baseball biographies ever written."
—USA Today Sports Weekly
"Baseball rarely edges into noir, but this compelling biography by Eric Stone reads as if it had been filmed in black and white in the golden age of film noir Hollywood. Mesmerized by the waste of it all, yet tempted to hope because of his talent, we follow the story of a brilliant but flawed player, Blackie Schwamb, whose career was derailed through the tragic consequences of gangland connections."
—Kevin Starr, University Professor in History, University of Southern California, California State Librarian Emeritus, author of "Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003" and the other six volumes of the "Americans and the California Dream" series.
I also have another book out at the moment. It’s a detective thriller called, “The Living Room of the Dead.” It’s set in Hong Kong, Macau and Vladivostok, Russia and based on a true story that I know from my years working as a journalist in Asia.
Here’s what some other people have said about “The Living Room of the Dead”:
"The Living Room of the Dead is a stylish, fresh take on classic noir themes. You won't soon forget Eric Stone's vivid depictions of Macau and Vladivostok -- or the sad, doomed characters who think they're simply passing through."
—Laura Lippman, winner of the Edgar, Agatha, Shamus, Anthony and Nero Wolfe awards for her Tess Monaghan series of novels, the most recent of which is "By a Spider’s Thread" and also author of "Every Secret Thing," her first stand-alone novel.
"Auspicious debut thriller by a former journalist who knows the exotic locales whereof he writes: the story is original and compelling, a page-turner with the spare, relentless style of Dennis Lehane or Michael Connelly."
—John Farris, bestselling author of the classic thrillers "The Fury" and "The Fury and the Terror" among others.
"Chandler and Hammett come to life in contemporary Macau. Exotic, dangerous, deadly, fun. The first book of a Ray Sharp series. Let's hope there will be many more."
—Allan Folsom, New York Times bestselling author of "The Day After Tomorrow", "The Day of Confession" and his latest thriller "The Exile".
"What a first novel - exotic in setting, expert in the telling, and exciting from first page to last. A unique and compelling novel in every respect."
—Ed Gorman, Shamus award winning author of the Sam McCain mysteries, the most recent of which is "Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool".
You can read excerpts of both books and learn more about me at my website: [url]www.ericstone.com[/url]
I will be in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore area at a number of local bookstores. I am not having any formal events, but there are several stores that have ordered large quantities of my books and I will be at those stores at specifc times to sign the books and sit around over coffee with anyone who shows up and wants to talk about them. Here’s my proposed schedule:
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OK, alright.
OK, more fun than going to book events to celebrate biographies of obscure baseball figures might be the new cheetah cubs unveiled at the national zoo.