Isotopes Park trio write the book(s) on baseball
If the Albuquerque Isotopes want to start a book of the month club, they could cover the upcoming summer with works from their own employees.
General manager John Traub, part-time official scorekeeper Gary Herron and play-by-play announcer Josh Suchon all have books out; Suchon’s hit the shelves this week. He will do a signing Saturday at Barnes & Noble at Coronado Mall
at 2:30 p.m.
“I’m excited, but there is also some nervousness that no one will show up,” says Suchon, who is in his first season with the Isotopes and called an 8-4 Albuquerque loss to visiting Memphis on Thursday. “But they’re fun to do, because I think people like it better when they can talk directly to the person who wrote the book, and I’m happy to answer any questions.”
Suchon’s book, “Miracle Men: Hershiser, Gibson, and the Improbable 1988 Dodgers” (Triumph), is the story of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ upset of heavily favored Oakland in the 1988 World Series. Former Dodger star pitcher Orel Hershiser wrote the foreword.
Traub’s book is “Baseball; One Helluva a Life” (Infinity), which he co-wrote with longtime baseball GM Dave Rosenfield about Rosenfield’s colorful career. It came out last year.
Herron’s book, “Duke City Diamonds: Baseball in Albuquerque” (Rio Grande Press/LPD Books), contains summaries of every pro team Albuquerque has had. It came out in March.
Herron, has been an official scorekeeper for both the Isotopes and former Albuquerque Dukes for a combined 1,372 games. His first
book, “Baseball in Albuquerque,” came out in 2011.
“That book was image heavy, more than 200 images and not a lot of the printed word,” says Herron, 62. “Doing research for that book, I realized there were a lot of great baseball stories that needed to be told.”
Telling stories is Rosenfield’s specialty, and Traub says that gave him the brainstorm for his book.
“He’s been in baseball since 1956, as has been an icon in our industry since,” Traub, 48, says of Rosenfield. “He was a general manager when they did it all — from signing players to making popcorn to driving the bus to scouting players. He’s a terrific storyteller. At the winter meetings, he always known for holding court in a bar somewhere.”
Traub never had been an author, but said he’s always been passionate about writing and a phone conversation with Rosenfield led to the book.
“It was just before the 2010 season, and he was making me laugh as always,” Traub says. “I said, ‘You’ve got to put these stories in a book.’ He said people had asked him to do that for years, but he could never find the right person.
“I always wanted to write a book,” Traub says. “I was the editor of my high school newspaper. I have a degree in psychology, but secretly always wanted to be a journalist. I said, ‘What if I did it?’ He asked, ‘Have you ever written anything before?’ I said, ‘Nope.’ He said, ‘Good enough for me.’ So we worked together for about two years.”
Traub’s and Herron’s books are available at the Pro Shop at Isotopes Park and on Amazon.com.
Suchon’s “Miracle Men” is already on the shelves of bookstores across the country, as well as on Amazon.com.
Suchon, who also wrote “This Gracious Season: Barry Bonds & The Greatest Year in Baseball” in 2002, was San Francisco Giants beat writer for the Oakland Tribune from 2000-06. He worked as co-host of the Dodgers’ postgame radio show from 2008-2011 and was a freelancer for 15 months until being hired by the Isotopes in March.
“I was looking for something to do last summer, and I liked the idea of the 1988 Dodgers,” he said. “I saw that no one had ever done it, which stunned me. I went to my bookcase, and just started looking for the name of publishers. Two or three of my friends had written books for Triumph, and I found a place on the website for submissions. I sent it to them, they were interested, and a week later I said, ‘I’d like to do this.’ ”
That was in June. Suchon, 39, says he finished the book by Sept. 1.
“I turned it around in 3½ months,” he says. “All I did all summer; I did yoga, I ate, I slept and I did this book.”