Pinch Me — Twice, Just To Be Sure
You write a book and hope someone in the media will care. But you don’t get specific. No. You don’t say — even if the only noise in the room is a snoring dog and a whirring ceiling fan, you don’t so much as whisper the words — “Hey, maybe Minnesota institution Nick Coleman will devote his Sunday column in the largest daily in the five state area to your book.” No, no, you don’t.
But then one day Mr. Coleman e-mails you and your first thought is not about a column — he doesn’t, after all, so much as mention the possibility — but rather you wonder: “Is this really Nick Coleman or someone impersonating Nick Coleman?” So you answer his single-question message, which isn’t about Charles Bender, “Chief Bender’s Burden,” or even baseball, and you go eat another turkey burger. And then the next morning this alleged Nick Coleman writes again and he says something about a possible column. But you don’t get your hopes up because even if you’ve never been in his league you’ve spent time in the newspaper business and you know this deal could get spiked for more reasons than you can count even if you have the use of electronic aids.
And your instincts not to tell anyone you don’t sleep with are proven correct as the weeks go by and you don’t hear anything more. Then you do hear something, an interview is scheduled, in fact, but that morning you answer the phone nervously only to learn that he doesn’t have time just now. He says something about the U.S. Senate and you think, “boy, if I had a nickel …” Then more weeks pass and you let it go. Until … until … you hear from him again and this time the interview happens.
Except even though you tell yourself beforehand that you won’t give all those long-winded answers you always give you hang up the phone knowing you just blew with gale force. And you figure there’s nothing anyone, even a national-award winning journalist, can do with that. But, miraculously, you are wrong and after you hear from a friend that a piece has been published — you don’t actually search for it yourself because you’re a freak — you sit in the chair, snoring dog at your feet, whirring fan above your head, and it hits you just how damn lucky you are.
This post was added on Monday, July 13, 2009 by Tom Swift at 14:29 and is filed under Media Alert, Swift Boat.
"Chief Bender's Burden" has won the 2009 Seymour Medal, which recognizes the best work of baseball history during the preceding calendar year. Thanks awards committee, Dorothy Seymour Mills, the Society for American Baseball Research, and readers!
