TV anchor turns author on sports book for children
Hint to Fox 5 San Diego anchor Andrew Luria that his bucket-list goal had developed some rust, long after he settled in rust-free Southern California, and a sheepish smile creases his face. He was 26, new to broadcasting and not yet a parent. He wanted to write a sports-related book for kids.
He started typing … and typing … and typing.
Now, the 41-year-old father of three can give that nagging bucket a satisfying kick as the book, “The Adventures of Charlie Marley: Midnight’s Moment in Time” debuts this weekend on Amazon. Rough math says the 26.5-pagesper-year pace shows f lashes of the stick-to-itiveness polished as a two-sport athlete at the Cornell University.
“This dates back, I’m almost embarrassed to say, to 2006,” Luria said.
The book draws from the life of Luria, a Washington D.C.-area kid who roamed Ivy League hallways as a baseball and football player. He blended two loves, sports and a self-proclaimed “space nerd” fascination with the cosmos, to fashion fiction for young readers.
The page-turning skinny: The main character and a friend meet a quirky inventor who struck out in the most embarrassing way to end the 1994 World Series. That series never happened, as San Diego well knows, because of a strike that created tasty beer homage to Tony Gwynn named .394.
Time travel steers the group into the fray of six unforgettable moments in sports, from Babe Ruth’s called shot at the World Series and the Stanford band storming the field against Cal to misadventures involving Mary Lou Retton, Jackie Robinson, Michael Jordan and Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
Luria wedged writing in between starting his own family and time at the TV station. He pinpointed an illustrator. He began his own publishing company.
The years piled up. “It's that sports mentality of, I'm not giving up on this,” he said.
Luria's sports focus gained steam at Cornell, where he became captain of the baseball team as a second baseman and center fielder. He began his career with a hit in his first at-bat and ended it with another in his final plate appearance to upend rival Princeton.
Another swing stands out.
“The moment I remember the most is hitting a game-winning home run the day after my grandfather died, my senior year,” Luria said. “It was the top of the inning and we still needed three outs. I gave a hug to my pitcher and said, ‘You've got to finish it for us.' And he did.
“It was an emotional moment.”
The memories flood back, especially for someone living in warm and comfy Carlsbad.
Luria shivered at the team's baseball laps in Ithaca, N.Y., especially after pushing eventual national champion Miami into extra innings.
“We lost by a run,” he said. “(Then) I remember playing Yale in the snow. That was not pleasant. The coldest I've been in my life was playing at Penn State. It's up on a hill, so wind was coming every which direction, sleet was coming sideways at your face.
“We had a space heater in the dugout.”
The former football wide receiver and kick returner succumbed to baseball, bringing him to California for the first time to play semi-pro ball with the Santa Barbara Foresters. He was a teammate of future Padres pitcher James Shields.
Luria met Santa Barbara broadcaster Gerry Fall, who had stopped at the field for a story.
“I pulled him aside and said, ‘Hey, I've always been interested in sportscasting,' ” Luria said. “He said, ‘When you come out next
summer, we'll do an internship.' Sure enough I did and started my broadcasting career that way.”
The job road included stops in Eureka, Santa Maria, Sacramento and Tampa before landing in San Diego. That stubborn bucket trailed along.
“I don't want kids to forget Babe Ruth or Mary Lou Retton or Jackie Robinson,” Luria said. “I'd be perfectly happy if my kids and their friends read it. If it got into the hands of more kids, that would be gravy.”
Part of the allure, Luria said, was the hope the book will make kids smile. He coaches his children in multiple sports and has become known as the king of the dad joke at Fox 5. A favorite?
“You hear there's a new restaurant called karma?” said Luria, pausing for self-satisfying affect. “There's no menu … you get what you deserve.”
His young niece might have one-upped him.
“She told me a great one,” Luria said. “Why did (singer) Adele cross the road? To say, ‘Hello from the other side.' If I get the kids to roll their eyes, I feel like I've won.”
What's the plan for the next 14 years?
“Write the sequel, I guess,” Luria said. “If my wife doesn't kill me first.”
You might want to leave that chapter out. These are kids, after all.