FIRST 'HERE'S THE PITCH' PAPERBACK TO PUBLISH NOV. 15

WORK OF 15 IBWAA MEMBERS IS FEATURED

Pregame Pepper

Atlanta’s Thursday trade of Jorge Soler for Angels pitcher Griffin Canning breaks up a DH logjam, since Marcell Ozuna will be back and rehabbing Ronald Acuna, Jr. may need some reps in that spot. It also frees up $32 million in salary over the next two years so that Alex Anthopoulos can find help at shortstop and left field . . .

Although it’s been decades since a closer won a Cy Young, Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase should finish at least a close second to Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, who won the American League’s Triple Crown of pitching, leading the Junior Circuit in wins, strikeouts, and ERA . . .

Ichiro Suzuki, who could join Mariano Rivera as the only unanimous selections to the Baseball Hall of Fame, is expected to attract record-breaking crowds for Induction Weekend in July. The previous record of 87,500 — for Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, Jr. — is in serious jeopardy.

Leading Off

First ‘Here’s The Pitch’ annual rolls off ACTA presses in two weeks

By Dan Schlossberg

With an eye toward the 2025 baseball season, Here’s the Pitch 2025 features 35 essays on a wide variety of subjects — from Justin Verlander’s quest for 300 wins to the Aaron Judge approach to the 500 Home Run Club.

Also included are stories on the purple heart Yogi Berra earned but never received, Shohei Ohtani’s record contract, deserving players left out of Cooperstown, ballparks that hosted Negro Leagues games, perfect games, spring training, and the controversy of fans picking All-Star lineups. George Steinbrenner and Rob Manfred are there too, along with Jackie Robinson Hall of Fame plaque that had to be changed and the Bristol Speedway game that seems certain to smash attendance records.

The paperback, which features a foreword by Class of 2022 Hall of Famer Jim Kaat, will be available for $24.95 on Nov. 15, making it the earliest of the 2025 pre-season periodicals.

It was ACTA Publications chief Greg Pierce, like Kaat a regular reader of this newsletter, who called out of the blue one summer afternoon and asked me to select and edit the contents of the book.

Despite numerous other demands on my time — both personal and professional — I took on the project, with the support of Dan Epstein, then co-director of the IBWAA, and fellow newsletter editors Elizabeth Muratore and Ben Chase, who have since moved into the role Dan recently vacated.

All three newsletter editors see every article submitted, even those ticketed for editions they don’t edit. I handle Friday and Saturday issues but have access to all, allowing me to choose not only writers published on the weekend but others as well.

Jeff Kallman, who has just joined the team of editors, is the author of three essays that made the final cut. Paul Banks, Mark Kolier, and W.H. (Bill) Johnson have two apiece. And the Big Three of Epstein, Muratore, and Chase also have their bylined work in this initial effort.

Because the book was deliberately designed to include a wide range of topics, a handful of my own articles are also included. But for me, Here’s The Pitch 2025 required a lot more editing than writing.

The best part was designing the cover, which includes a green-and-white background different from the typical baseball annual, plus the IBWAA logo and a photograph of Marcell Ozuna, the rehabilitated Atlanta DH who not only kept his injury-ravaged team afloat but made a spirited run for a rare Triple Crown for most of the 2024 season.

According to publisher Greg Pierce, those whose work was chosen will have their choice of $100 per essay or 10 free copies of the book.

For further information, contact ACTA Publications: gfapierce@actapublications.com or 800-397-2282.

Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of 42 baseball books, including Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron, The New Baseball Bible, and collaborations with Ron Blomberg, Al Clark, and Milo Hamilton. He’s also a national baseball writer for forbes.com. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.

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Timeless Trivia

Winning 5-0 at home behind top starter Gerrit Cole, the New York Yankees and their fans thought they were well on their way toward narrowing their World Series deficit to 3-2 in the best-of-seven match against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Then Aaron Judge, their usually reliable center-fielder, dropped a fly ball and — even worse — Cole forgot to cover first base on an infield grounder that turned into a single as the Dodgers scored five unearned runs . . .

The Yankees also had a bad throw from Anthony Volpe, a Gold Glove shortstop, plus catcher’s interference from Austin Wells, not to mention bad base-running . . .

Will Aaron Boone and his coaches survive Game 5? There’s precedent for a pennant-winning Yankees manager losing his job over World Series performance (Casey Stengel in 1960) . . .

The team also needs to prevent star left-handed slugger Juan Soto from jumping into free agency, where a $600 million salary lurks — perhaps with the crosstown Mets or maybe even with the Dodgers, who can afford the outfielder because all but $2 million per year of Shohei Ohtani’s dollars are deferred.

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Know Your Editors

HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.

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