Acknowledgments

No one is able to write a whole book by himself—least of all me—and the list of folks I’m indebted to is mighty long. Bear with me, because all these people played important roles in this fascinating process.

I begin with my family, all of whom worked with me on digging up, confirming, or refuting old stories and perspectives: my mother and father, sister Elly, and brothers Fred and Billy. My wife, Kelly, read drafts and offered a host of suggestions. My mother- and father-in-law, Joan and Bob Geer, are definitely part of this story.

I thank everyone who works professionally with me almost on a daily basis. They’re all the best: Ron Shapiro and Michael Maas; Ira Rainess, Désirée Pilachowski, Blythe Hammett, Lanie Yerman, Susan Morris, and Gloria Dausch.

With the Baltimore Orioles, John Maroon, Bill Stetka, and Heather Tilles in the media relations office were indispensable. Tom Keenan in that office did a great job as the main fact-checker for this book.

For help with the text itself, I thank Patty Bryan. Jean and Nick Bryan, Nicole Bryan, Val and Steve Salinger, Joe Spieler, and Stephanie Vardavas contributed valuable support, as did my friends at John Brown’s Store.

I have a pretty good memory, but it’s not perfect, and I couldn’t have written this book without the generous contributions of dozens of people who were there, too. I thank all of them for their time, and perspectives: Spiro Alafassos, Joe Altobelli, Brady Anderson, Richie Bancells, Rex Barney, Mark Belanger, Tim Bishop, Mike Boddicker, Bob Brown, Brooks Carey, Joe Castelano, Bob Davids, Storm Davis, Doug DeCinces, Rick Dempsey, Mike Flanagan, Scott Garceau, Will George (not George Will, who comes up later), Bill Haelig, Roland Hemond, Elrod Hendricks, Phil Itzoe, Reggie Jackson, Davey Johnson, Lenny Johnston, Tom Marr, Ben McDonald, Scott McGregor, Ray Miller, Keith Mills, Eddie Murray, Mike Mussina, Tim Norris, Johnny Oates, Buster Olney, Jim Palmer, Hank Peters, Kirby Puckett, Floyd “Sugar Bear” Rayford, Jamie Reed, Phil Regan, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Gerry Sandusky, Peter Schmuck, Larry Sheets, John “T-Bone” Shelby, Mrs. Short in Bluefield, Charles Steinberg, Vince Steier, Rick Sutcliffe, Jim Traber, Jimmy Tyler, Rick Vaughn, Julie Wagner, Earl Weaver, George Will (not Will George, who came up earlier), Jimmy Williams, and Gregg Zaun.

At Viking, I’d like to thank Assistant Editor Michael Hardart, and last, but by no means least, my editor, Wendy Wolf, who was great from beginning to end, in all respects, and amazingly tolerant as time was running out on her deadline . . . then her next deadline . . . then her final deadline.