About the Author

Mike Shannon is the co-founder and current Editor-in-Chief of Spitball, the Literary Baseball Magazine, now in its 34th year of publication. He is the author of sixteen baseball books, including Diamond Classics: Essays on 100 of the Best Baseball Books Ever Published; Baseball: the Writers' Game; Tales From The Dugout: The Greatest True Baseball Stories Ever Told; Tales From The Ballpark: More of the Greatest True Baseball Stories Ever Told; Riverfront Stadium: Home of the Big Red Machine; Everything Happens in Chillicothe: A Summer in the Frontier League with Max McLeary, the One-Eyed Umpire; More Tales from the Dugout; and Willie Mays: Art in the Outfield. Shannon was given the 2009 Tony Salin Memorial Award by The Baseball Reliquary. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife, the former Kathy Dermody, and their five children: Meg, Casey, Mickey, Babe, and Nolan Ryan.