Vintage Baseball Card book review

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

http://www.tallahassee.com/special/blogs/bgabordi/

Hopefully all of you guys and gals have enjoyed it as well!

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Posted By: barrysloate

I finished it yesterday, and I really enjoyed it a lot. I was impressed by how well Hal was able to tell a story, and how seamlessly he was able to discuss vintage baseball cards, the law, and pop culture, and weave them all into this mystery with lots of very good and very evil characters. And since one character was based on me, it made it that much more fun (although I don't have a cell phone and I drive a Honda, but why quibble).

I especially liked the Malenglish. I always get chastised on the board for hijacking threads but this is what Malenglish is all about. One minute you're having a serious discussion, then suddenly a Beavis and Butt-Head quote or a famous movie line pops up in the discussion.

Hal- it's an awfully good first novel, and I wanted to ask you how long it took you to write it?

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Posted By: Max Weder

Barry

Writers and artists will always respond to that question: "It took me all my life".

Max

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Posted By: barrysloate

In the sense that it is the sum of all of one's life experiences, I will agree.

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

I should say something clever and abstract, like:

"I didn't write it; I let it write itself."

or

"Time stood still as the words flowed from my pen."


(gag me)


But like Max said, it's the culmination of a lifetime of reading mystery books and gathering baseball card knowledge.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Okay- then let me rephrase the question:

How much time elapsed from the moment you sat down at the computer and typed the first words, until you got up and said "it's done"?

You clearly got the seed of an idea from the Wagner proof strip, and cleverly sidetracked the reader by focusing on the Bowerman card. I liked that angle a lot. But you haven't known about the strip your whole life, so the artistic process was finite.

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

Shoot, it really didn't take that long to write. It took longer to edit.

With the internet at my side, I was able to do all the necessary research in very little time.

For instance, I knew that the T206 Wagner was printed by the American Lithograph Company in New York in 1909... so I had no choice but to start with that fact and work my way forward.

I needed the name of a real orphanage that existed in Manhattan in 1909 and is still in operation... so I was able to find one via the internet.

Then I needed something to have killed his parents in New York in 1907. Bingo, the internet tells me that 1907 was the year Typhoid Mary caused an outbreak in Manhattan.

Bowerman was the "unknown" player on the T206 strip... and as luck would have it, the internet told me that he played in New York in 1905, so he tied in perfectly.

etc, etc.

I guess you could say that I looked up FACTS and then let them dictate which way the book turned. I wanted someone to be able to get on line and be amazed when they check the facts and see that ALL of them are real!

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Posted By: barrysloate

What did Hemingway and Faulkner do without the internet.

By the way, given that the sheet was five cards across and six down, it would have barely measured 8" x 15", about the size of a sheet of legal paper. But since it filled the bottom of the trunk, in my mind's eye it seemed much larger.

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

The sheet didn't necessarily fill up the bottom of the trunk...

but the larger artist's sketch pad in which the sheet was stored for sakekeeping did.

And this was covered with a blanket that also covered the whole bottom of the trunk.

But yes, the uncut sheet of T206's would not have been a very large item size-wise. Certainly nothing like the huge uncut sheets of the entire M101-5 set that I have seen in auctions.

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Posted By: barrysloate

That's right- it was in the sketch pad with Joe Marinolli's pay stub!

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

I guess without the internet I would have had to move up to Brooklyn for a month and live with Barry in order to do my New York research.


But if Barry doesn't own a cell phone... does he even have TIVO?

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Posted By: barrysloate

No TIVO, a VCR that doesn't work, never bought a DVD player, and never bought a CD player (although there is one in the car).

But I do have a turntable and still listen to my LP's that I bought forty years ago. Does it seem like I am a little behind the times?

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

Uh... I believe the word I used to describe you in the book was "dinosaur", was it not?

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Posted By: barrysloate

See, you know me very well. Even the apartment I live in is a converted brownstone built in 1880. Maybe that is why I have an affinity for baseball memorabilia...I like all things old!

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Posted By: JimB

Barry,
For a guy with no cell phone in New York, and no dvd player, I guess internet bidding came quite quickly.

I still listen to (and buy) lps as well; as a hi-fi fanatic, I think they sound much better than cds.
JimB

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Posted By: barrysloate

Without my wife's assistance it would have been real difficult for me to run the internet auction.

I love playing my old albums, and the sound is great. It's hard finding a good turntable these days, but we were lucky.

As an aside WKCR in New York has been playing Max Roach's music 24/7. With his death an era came to an end (sorry to hijack Hal, but that's what happens when you use Malenglish- thoughts just come out of nowhere)

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

No problem, Barry.

Malenglish has no time constraints.

If it's in your blood, you can't help it.

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Posted By: dan mckee

You should have offered me your T206 Wagner directly, I would have paid you $110,000 for it. Now you only got about $150,00 for it auctioning it, I bet u feel dumb ah?

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

I was pleased with the auction results.

No calls from the FBI yet.

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Posted By: B.C.Daniels

there is no substitute for a Macintosh amplifier with tubes!
they were always the best!

BcD

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Posted By: peter chao

Hal,

I've got to give you credit. Irregardless of the splash you made with your book, I have to congratulate you for pursuing a dream. That in itself is to be applauded.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Calling Dr. Sloate! Calling Dr. Sloate!

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Posted By: barrysloate

I know, I know, I see it!

Peter- irregardless of what you were taught, "irregardless" is not an English word.

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Posted By: B.C.Daniels

Idiom~

BcD

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Posted By: joe brennan

Barry,
For a guy with no cell phone in New York, and no dvd player, I guess internet bidding came quite quickly.

I still listen to (and buy) lps as well; as a hi-fi fanatic, I think they sound much better than cds.
JimB



Jim, How can you say that? Scatchy sound with background hummm. Nothing sounds better than the newest sound systems. Sound systems are like computers, obsolete in 6 months. Now to bring back memories, nothing like starting a needle on an album. But that's apples and oranges. Irregardlessly.

In Rememberance of James W. Brennan Sr. 1924-1982. Dad, thanks for everything you did for me.