When writing historical fiction, I always make sure to research the time period extensively and adhere wherever possible to primary sources, except when I want to make a joke or something, in which case I just go ahead and change whatever. The story “Screwball” is a good example of these methods. The premise is true: Jack Dunn really did sign Babe Ruth straight out of St. Mary’s, and his nineteen-year-old son, Jack Dunn Jr., really did have the misfortune of competing against Ruth for a roster spot during their joint rookie season. There’s no way to know what kind of relationship Dunn Jr. had with Babe Ruth, but when I saw their names printed side by side and looked up their statistics, I couldn’t help but try to imagine it. I can’t say for sure what percentage of “Screwball” is true, but if I had to put a number on it, I’d guess it’s higher than Dunn Jr.’s lifetime batting average, but probably lower than Ruth’s. I’m grateful to the following sources for the insight they gave me into Ruth’s upbringing and baseball’s “dead-ball era.”
The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth by Leigh Montville
Babe: The Legend Comes to Life by Robert W. Creamer
Babe Ruth: His Life and Legend by Kal Wagenheim
Humor Among the Minors: True Tales from the Baseball Brush by Edward Michael Ashenback
Fifty-nine in ’84 by Edward Achorn
Cobb: A Biography by Al Stump
The rest of the stories are made up.
So many people helped me in so many ways with this book. I want to thank Michael Szczerban, Thea Diklich-Newell, Jayne Yaffe Kemp, Pamela Marshall, Alyssa Persons, Kim Sheu, Daniel Greenberg, Lee Eastman, Gregory McKnight, Allan Haldeman, Alex Rincon, Jonathan Harvey, Robert Webb, Cariad Lloyd, Jamie Demetriou, Lewis Macleod, Freya Parker, Susan Morrison, Emma Allen, David Remnick, Chris Meledandri, Rodney Rothman, Hannah Minghella, Jon Cohen, Jeannette Francis, Daniel Radcliffe, Peter Serafinowicz, Thom Hinkle, Andrew Eisenman, Beck Bennett, Ted Melfi, Mark Johnson, Jim Miller, Erin Westerman, Ryan Reynolds, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Paul King, Shana Gohd, Jennifer Kim, Barrett Festen, Gail Winston, Jake Luce, and the excellent librarians at Shorewood Public Library in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Most of all I want to thank my wife, the brilliant writer Kathleen Hale, who has read literally hundreds of versions of these stories. Thank you for making my writing so much better, and the rest of my life, too.