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Home FAQ Samples Endorsements Radio Show Contact Us ___________________ To add your own endorsement, click the button below	I loved the book of stories based on the radio show A Page from Baseball’s Past. I am delighted the series is now coming to my email inbox. … [it] is just excellent. I learn a lot from reading it. – Bill James, Senior Baseball Operations Advisor, Boston Red Sox Click here to go to Bill's longer comment on A Page from Baseball's Past I'm not one of those people who refuses to pay for anything on the Web … but if I could pay for just one thing, it would probably be Craig Wright’s baseball writings. – Rob Neyer, Senior Baseball Writer, ESPN.com This is the best, and best researched, series of baseball history that I've ever read. Each entry is much-anticipated. It never disappoints. Rather, I can't wait to read the next one each time."   -- Ray Buck, Senior Staff Writer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram I'm enjoying your stuff tremendously … just phenomenal, the best emails I get all week. – Steve Moyer, President, Baseball Info Solutions I really look forward to each column and I haven’t got one yet that wasn’t enjoyable. – Pete Palmer, baseball author and co-editor of the annual “Emerald Guide to Baseball” "Baseball's Past" is such a treat. I’m happy to endorse something as valuable as your work. – Paul Adomites, former SABR Publications Director, founding editor of The Cooperstown Review It's a "no-brainer".....you have to order this! Thanks Craig ... you guys do a great job....love the articles! - Rick Schabowski, President of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter of SABR The stories are universally wonderful. – Eric Nadel, voice of the radio show Craig Wright's [“A Page from Baseball’s Past”] is some of the best, most readable, most thoroughly-researched baseball writing I've seen. Our reader [D.P.] turned me on to this and I have been thankful ever since. – D. Bruce Brown, of Horsehide Trivia It is a treat getting such blue chip updates on history (over here!) in the UK. – Mike Ross, Chairman of SABR’s United Kingdom chapter The research and stories are great; the pictures are great. A friend asked me what was the best baseball book I read this year. I thought a moment and told him to subscribe to A Page from Baseball’s Past – it’s like a good book but better! – E.B., Seattle, WA I receive many baseball-related emails and publications – yours is the freshest and most thoughtful of all. Great job! – S.V. Danville, CA I’m just thrilled to have recently begun receiving the pages from baseball’s past. I fully intend to be a lifetime subscriber … I love each one that I’ve received. – S.T., Smithfield, RI I wouldn’t lose this for the world. I run a busy professional practice and yours is the only email worth reading. I’d pay much more than $21 a year. – M.H. Pickering, Ontario Thanks. By the way, these have been the best baseball articles I’ve ever read (actually forget “baseball articles,” they’re the best articles of any sort, period)! – K.M. Norristown, PA Your “histories” are simply marvelous … thanks for all of them. – J.H. San Jose, CA I … used to live in Ft. Worth and always enjoyed the radio show as a great way to get in the mood for the ballgame. … WOW! This is even better than the radio show. – J. E., Louisville, KY I am greatly enjoying your stories of baseball’s yesteryear … wonderfully done. – R.D. Indianapolis, IN I absolutely love your publication, and can’t imagine it being any more interesting … Your selection of topics and the way you write them up are totally entertaining, and the footnotes are a fascinating feature that sets you apart from all the others. What I've been doing is printing each article and saving them to read on the plane when I travel. The Skymall mag gets old, but baseball never does! Keep up the good work! - W.H., Fairview Heights, IL I really appreciate the time you put into the stories and I enjoy reading your research notes at the end too!  … We gave my sister-in-law a subscription and she sent me a card that she is also enjoying them a lot.  - D.S., Plano, TX Happy Holidays, and Thanks for the GREAT JOB! Let me know when my subscription is up.....I'll renew in a heartbeat! - R.S., St. Francis, WI Keep up the good work! Your offerings are all in the strike zone. – J.H., San Jose, CA These [stories are] delightful. I’m so glad that I subscribed! – R.R., Toledo, OH I am so impressed by the quality of stories, both the story-telling and the research. In fact, one of my favorite features is your little research notes. They are often fascinating and entertaining by themselves. I never fail to read them. – J.M., Concord, NH I want to say your delivery system means a lot to this subscriber – not having to retrieve the stories but simply having them show up complete in my emailbox is just wonderful. I can imagine the temptation to change that and better protect yourself from being ripped off. I want you to know I appreciate the value you have placed on the convenience of your subscribers. I hope it will always be worth it. – J.R., Rochester, NY Thanks so much for the piece on Jim “Catfish” Hunter … You did an excellent job … I will be going to Hereford … and share a copy of your “Page” with Helen, his wife. Keep up your good work.” – P.C., Durham, NC (former neighbor and distant relative of Hunter’s) I agree with my fellow subscribers on … their assessment on the enjoyment they are receiving from your features.  I look forward to getting them through the year, especially during the bleak winter months. – R.D., Indianapolis, IN Your sample stories were great … I figured they were a select group, and I was prepared for a drop in quality when my subscription started, but, no, they are every bit as good. This second order is a subscription I am giving as a gift to my brother-in-law. - M.H., Seattle , WA Love the stories and want to keep them coming. – I.C., Hoboken, NJ (re-subscribing after his money back guarantee as a SABR member) Thanks for what you do. I really enjoy it!!! – T.M., Waco, TX First of all, I want to thank you for the stories. They are outstanding and I really value the subscription. – M.W., Eugene, OR I really enjoy reading about the players and situations from the past. I love what you [are] doing, you've got a great thing going. … Thanks again, and keep up the good work. – J.P., Sherman, TX I really enjoy all the stories, and the additional comments and information that is added to the end of each one.  Keep up the good work!! T.S., Ottawa, KS I look forward to Baseball’s Past every time one lands in my inbox. Thanks for doing them. – R.B., Irving, TX I have just started receiving “A Page from Baseball’s Past.” You do a great job. – P.C., Durham, NC Thanks!  I'm enjoying my subscription immensely.  You have to be a SABR guy ... – W.H., Fairview Heights, IL [CRW: I am proud to be a long-time member of the Society for American Baseball Research.] I'm enjoying A Page from Baseball's Past very much. – M.S., High Falls, NY I look forward to the articles … Thanks for allowing me to be a part of this. – J.B., Wooster, OH Keep it coming … GREAT JOB – T.M., Waco, TX Thanks. Keep’em comin’! - S.T., North Richland Hills, TX Hi- I am a recent subscriber and I really enjoy your articles. – J.D., Staten Island, NY It’s great stuff. Thanks – D.P., New City, NY … a year round treat. – L.R., Arlington, TX I appreciate getting the stories whenever they show up. – E.B., Houston, TX … keep up the good work. I really like the articles. – S.S., Indianapolis, IN Thanks for the great stories. I look forward to receiving them. – R.L., Providence, R.I. I enjoy the stories very much. – J.C., Fair Oaks, CA Always a fun read, at any time of the year. – I.C., Hoboken, NJ I really enjoy these stories. – J.G., Streamwood, IL Keep up the good work. – J.C., New York City, NY Thank you for sharing your insights and talent.– B.C., Florence, SC Thanks. I enjoy it! – L.W, Sun Lakes, AZ Thank You! I really have enjoyed the many great baseball stories. – M.D. Buffalo, NY I’ve enjoyed the … subscription and look forward to continuing. – M.C. Scottsdale, AZ Terrific reading. I have saved every issue. - D.S. Kalamazoo, MI Fascinating topics, fine writing. – R.C. Blue Bell, PA	By the writer & researcher of A Page from Baseball’s Past, a one of a kind baseball column reflecting 21 years of major league experience Diamondappraised.com “Craig Wright is a brilliant analyst of the game. You know how that goes – ‘intelligent’ means that he agrees with me; ‘brilliant’ means that I agree with him but I never would have thought of it myself.” Bill James Senior Baseball Advisor Boston Red Sox
Bill James commenting on A Page from Baseball’s Past The first thing we have to understand about baseball writing is that baseball exists to be enjoyed. The second thing we have to understand is that this changes all the other rules. Take journalism, for example. Now journalists, on occasion can be right serious in how they approach their subjects, and they should be; it would not be appropriate to report on floods, fires, murder, and mayhem with your tongue in your cheek. Sports are different. Floods, fire, murder, and mayhem are not by their nature enjoyable. There are two basic groups of sports journalists -- those who understand this distinction, and who therefore report on sports in such a way as to help sports fans enjoy them, and those who proceed from the paradigm of educational theory, and report on sports as if they were another subdivision of the catastrophes of modern society. From one group you get arguments about MVP Awards, profiles on superstars, updates on the pennant race, humor, parody, history, trivia, speculation, and silliness. From the other you get serious articles about drugs, payoffs, racism, gambling, dissension, greed, impending financial ruin, moral decay, tooth decay, and your occasional shoulder injury or social disease. I am certainly not intent here upon alienating serious sports journalists or serious sports historians or serious sports anything; I've been accused of being serious myself on one or two occasions. I am saying, let us ponder the paradox of A Page from Baseball's Past: that a man as intelligent, as knowledgeable, as thorough, as ... well, serious, in the best sense of the word, as Craig Wright would chose to write this series of stories which is simply such a joy -- so light and bright and generally cheery that at times it seems in danger of floating out of your hands. But I understand that paradox perfectly, perhaps only because I have so much in common with him. There was a pivotal moment in my evolution as a sportswriter, a moment which occurred in 1978 in the press box of a game in Kansas City. What happened first that day was that the two teams, the Royals, and the Baltimore Orioles, played an absolutely fantastic baseball game -- a gripping, wrenching, seesawing contest eventually won by the Royals in their last at bat. What happened second was that nobody in the press box noticed. I looked around me, and I saw faces not drained or exhausted, not happy or sad, not relieved or frustrated. I saw men over their modems typing furiously. "What an incredible game," I started to say to the man next to me, and as the words were half-formed on my face he turned to the man next to him and muttered, "The only good thing about this game is that it is over." And that man muttered, "Yeah." Now by the lights of their profession, I should not even need to explain that these men were guilty of no oversight. The game ended at 10:30 and they had a 10:20 deadline; I didn't expect them to scratch their tummies for a half-hour before they filed their stories. But I was dumbfounded by the paradox: that this thing existed only to be enjoyed, and yet these men were, by the nature of their assignment, utterly incapable of enjoying it -- nay, more; incapable even of perceiving what the game was to the fans in the stands. Objectivity is a God to journalism; the universal admonition against cheering in the press box is in effect an admonition not to enjoy the game in the way that a fan enjoys it. But I wondered about this: if a man sees a wonderful game, and he does not know that he has seen a wonderful game, can he really be said to have seen it objectively? Can he be said to be reporting objectively upon a thing which exists only to be enjoyed, if he has not the capacity to enjoy it? The very essence of the enterprise is excluded from his report. If I had the time I should give you the newspaper accounts of that game; I will assure you that not one account, and I read four, so much as hinted that anytime something exceptional had occurred that night. Is not the good journalist, in a sense, like a poet who will not allow himself to smell the rose of which he rhapsodizes, for fear that the sensation might overpower his verse? Is that "objectivity," in fact, a protection of accurate perception or a barrier to accurate perception? The world is what it is; we cannot make it better by bewailing its inconsistencies. Of course sportswriters do not live under a perpetual deadline; most of them can and do enjoy those parts of the game which are open to them. But I decided that morning that I would never do that to myself; I would never put myself in a position from which I was unable to enjoy the moment of the contest. I would never become unwilling to enjoy the game, no matter what journalists thought of that. And I understand because of that, why Craig has been writing A Page from Baseball's Past for decades now. He has struggled for most of his life to understand this game a little better each day than the day before – yet he is also logical enough to understand that he must not stop enjoying the game as part of his struggle to understand it, but rather must enjoy it more, to enjoy it in more different ways. I loved The Man Who Stole First Base, the book of stories taken from the radio program A Page from Baseball's Past.  Most of what appears here came from the foreword I was pleased to write for that book. My big regret was that another book did not follow, and I did not live where I could hear the ongoing radio series of these stories. Now I have something better than a book. The series is coming to my email inbox and the enjoyment of each story includes the anticipation of the next one. Bill James   The E-version of A Page from Baseball’s Past is dedicated to the memory of Stan Reynolds