I guess we should reset this…
This blog exists to promote a still-untitled book coming out this fall, my first solo project. The book is a collection of my own Prospectus articles and columns dating to 1996, as well as original material, most notably a chapter devoted to the Mets/Cardinals 20-inning game from April of this year, a game that represented both the joys of being a baseball fan and the agonies of being a baseball analyst in the early 21st century.
Since signing the contract back in January, I have restarted the project twice, once to give it a structure I didn't hate, and once to go over all of my work again to ensure that I've included only the pieces that belong in a book such as this. The good news is that I'm happier today with what the book is than I have been at any time in seven months. The bad news is that I should probably have been there on June 15 or so. I'm behind, there's no way around it.
This isn't a sabermetric tome, but a writer's book, with, as it will turn out, a heavy emphasis on the business of the game and how that has evolved over the last 15 years. It also includes a number of what amounts to mash notes to baseball; it was refreshing, to me, to see that over 15 years of writing, a decade of doing it regularly, my love for baseball seems to come through. If anything, I was more jaded and bitter in 2002, when the economic illiteracy of that year's CBA negotiations drove me to walk away from BP for a little while, than I have ever been since then.
Today, I need your help. This book is still untitled, because I'm horrible at titling things. I'm asking for a brainstorming session, bad ideas, good ideas, ridiculous ideas ("Arrogance: The Joe Sheehan Collection" is the leader in the clubhouse, if that gives you any idea of how deeply in the woods we are on this) are all welcome, and if your idea ends up as the title, you'll be drafted to help me copyedit the gall… no, I'm kidding. However, if we do pick your title BP will tack on six months to your Premium subscription as a thanks.
I'll be posting a bit more frequently in here now, as I work feverishly to meet deadline while also tracking the pennant races and waiver trades, so please check in, use the comments section liberally, and if you're the praying kind, stick me into one, because I will need it.
Thank you for reading
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(Basically a mash of the slogan "An Army of One" and "The Baseball Anthology" -- think of a collection of essays by a disparate group of writers, but here it is a group of essays reflecting many facets of one diamond-obsessed mind.)
or "Sheehan Is Believin'" with the same subhead.
I look forward to this book!
Grab it before Hannity does.
Or maybe change the subtitle, like Views From A Professional Baseball Fan, or something.
by Joe Sheehan with Rob Deer
I've heard that the maverick publisher of Joe's book thinks industry standard precious dozen-word subtitles are ridiculous.
P.S. A lot of commentators at BP have already uttered that first part.
(The visual for the cover could be really cool, with a combined onion and baseball, and the "truths" that get discovered the more you peel away the surface and get towards the core.)
"Say It Ain't So, Joe!"
Reference to the media's attitude towards advanced metrics slowly replacing barbaric ideas like pitcher W-L records, AVG, and RBI.
Oh, well, that'll qualify for the spanish edition. In any case, I'm looking forward to it, Joe.
"Palin's Guide To High Brow Baseball"
a book that JUSTIN BIEBER will never read
written by Billy Beane
or
"Tuesdays With Torii"
Wait, that one's already inexplicably taken by Tim McCarver.
Baseball For Dummies Like Dusty Baker, Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver
Also (unrelated), there seem to be a lot of angry Phillies fans around here.
ReporterWRITERA Collection of Baseball Analysis
^The 2nd line is optional (as is the first, I guess).
2)I think a lot of the suggestions are either too clever, or revolve too much on Joe's name.
3)My suggestion is a little more conventional, but still has a baseball/BP/double meaning:
Outside Pitch.