I have always known that reading can open doors to all kinds of interesting possibilities even if only within the mind itself. Now working on our new book has taught me that the same thing is true of writing. The book is about Ebbets Field, the second volume in McFarland and Co's historic ballpark series. It will consist of a series of articles followed by a section of interviews with players, fans, sportswriters and others. I have to admit that I find the whole process of interviewing somewhat intimidating, if nothing else I am not particularly good at drawing people out, especially people who claim they don't remember anything about the subject at hand.
While Paul is doing most of the interviews, I am doing some and even though I find getting starting somewhat nerve wracking, once it gets going I really enjoy it. Last fall I had the privilege of interviewing Carl Erskine, former star pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers - at one point in the interview, he actually wondered if he was taking too much of my time! I didn't think much could match that, but I was wrong, on Wednesday morning, I spent about a 1/2 hour on the phone with Robert Caro - two time winner of the Putlitzer Prize. I hadn't thought about it ahead of time, which is probably a good thing, but he is one of my author heroes - I have read all four of his books, the one about Robert Moses and the first three volumes of his biography of Lyndon Johnson. Four may not sound like much, but at least two of the books come in at over 1000 pages - a 1000 pages of very enjoyable reading I might add.
Mr. Caro very generously spoke with me about his memories of attending games at Ebbets Field when he was a student at the Horace Mann School (also the alma mater of one Sarah Kaufman). Because he is such a gifted writer, he was able to give me some metaphors and images of the Ebbets Field experience that helped me to better understand how much it meant to so many people. What was so fascinating was listening to someone who has spent most of his life writing about politics and political power get so excited about his memories of baseball and his youth. I have another phone interview scheduled for Monday with another prominent person who first just wanted to take questions by e-mail. But last week his secretary wrote to ask if I could call instead, I don't know if it will come out why he changed his mind, but my guess is that the memories mean so much to him that he can't resist talking about them. I know I will be nervous about it, but I am looking forward to it.
The interviews aren't the only interesting development, I had visited the Brooklyn Historical Society in November to ask their help in collecting memories from Brooklyn residents. It turns out they have a program called Exhibition Laboratory (Ex-Lab for short) where local high school students work on an exhibit. By coincidence or grace (I prefer the latter explanation) this year's exhibit is on - you guessed it - the Dodgers and Ebbets Field. After some e-mail exchanges in January, I was asked to serve as the lead historian on the project - didn't take me long to accept that offer. So on February 25th I will be giving the students a talk about baseball, the Dodgers and Ebbets Field. I am really looking forward to it and it is helping me to think more about the content of our book - for example, it now occurs to me that Charles Ebbets in 1912 and Walter O'Malley in the 1950's faced a similar problem - how to replace a too small, deteriorating ballpark. From the Brooklyn perspective, Ebbets was successfull while O'Malley wasn't - some food for thought for a future book about Charles Ebbets. Anyway I have to believe that this role is going to help make this a better book and I am confident that there are more interesting steps along the way.
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