Baseball fans love reading about their favorite major league players in many books that focus on their professional playing careers, but one SABR member wanted to know more about their exploits on the sandlot. When he didn’t find these stories, he decided to write a book.
After a 10-year interviewing and writing project, Kelly Park (pictured above) published his book last year and joined us for SABR Day on Saturday, Jan. 30.
Fifteen chapter members and guests learned how Park got the idea to write “Just Like Me: When the Pros Played on the Sandlot” on the chapter Zoom meeting.
“There was not a book out there about the sandlot,” said Park, a member of the Pee Wee Reese Chapter in Louisville, Kentucky. “So, why don’t I write this?”
But Park faced two immense challenges from the beginning – he wasn’t a baseball insider with connections to ballplayers, and he didn’t have a literary background.
Rather than pack up his ball and glove and go home, he was determined to hear these stories and share them with the world.
A chance encounter with the son of former Cubs slugger Jim Hickman led to his first interview. That led to others – so many others. His book features interviews with 18 players, including major league managers, Negro League ballplayers and women who played in the All-American Girls Professional League. He’s planning a second volume of this book project with another 18 players, including Hall of Famer Don Sutton.
When asked why he wanted to capture and tell these stories, Park said, simply, “Because that’s what I wanted to know.”
He also shared that his father, a World War II veteran of the Pacific Theater, passed away in 2012, at a time when he was getting discouraged with his book project after numerous rejections from publishers. He regretted not learning more about his father’s lifetime experiences and used that sentiment as inspiration to write his book.
He also noted that he wanted to honor the men and women who took time to share their stories with him, so he felt a responsibility to get them published.
“There’s more to professional baseball than the Major Leagues,” he said.
Plus, he noted, stories about the players’ professional careers are easily found in biographies and sports articles, but their reflections on youth baseball and growing up before their professional careers are the things that interested Park.
You can learn more about Park and his book project on his website: https://justlikemethebook.com/
His website includes a link to purchase the book from the book publisher, Sunbury Press, a list of all the players he interviewed for book one and book two, and a page to submit your own sandlot story. In fact, the webpage features a story by our very own Monte Cely.
Many thanks to Kelly Park for sharing insights about his book and making our SABR Day extra special.
Our next chapter meeting will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20 via Zoom.
You must be logged in to post a comment.