I got the chance to work on three books during the second half of last year. The first one was a passion project, where I detailed the life and baseball career game-by-game of Dots Miller, who is probably more famous on this site than any Pirates/Cardinals/Phillies site. He lived his life in Kearny, NJ, where I was born. I'm a Pirates fan. We have ten relatives in common, so it was a book I wanted to do for a long time.
https://www.amazon.com/They-Call-Him.../dp/B0CV633PNT
I also helped on a 2024 Minor League Guide for the Pittsburgh Pirates. I didn't really push that here because a majority of it isn't relevant to this site, though I did four history stories in the book detailing how they built their farm system throughout the years. There's a great virtually unknown 1884 story about big league teams having their own minor league teams for a short time.
https://www.amazon.com/Pittsburgh-Pi.../dp/B0CWB4VDT1
Anyway, the third book was just released. It's titled Unlucky 13: They Wore a Pirate Uniform. Yes, the players are all Pirates, but this particular book works for all fans due to the stories. It's 13 short stories of players who were with the Pirates during the regular season, but for one reason or another, they didn't get into a game. It has happened about 40-50 times in team history, so a lot of the research was just finding the best 13 stories from that group (meaning there could be a follow up book with shorter stories on a bigger group of players). These stories range from a future Hall of Famer to a guy who never played a game of pro ball, and everything in between. Each story is unique, including a war hero who met a tragic ending before he could make the majors.
The book is only $12.99, which matches the length of the book, but not the research that went into finding small details on some players who are almost virtually unknown to anyone in baseball history. I didn't even know one of them before I started writing and all I do is Pirates history. He actually bumped another player to keep the "unlucky 13" theme.
Please consider purchasing the book or just share it with someone who might be interested. Thank you.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY574YNS