To write this book about myself I needed more help than for any other. Considering the clarity of his memory, I think my old friend Roger Adelman ought to try his own hand at this. Contributions from my brother, Bill, and my mother were invaluable. What the three of us could not personally recall, I usually found in my father’s meticulously compiled scrapbooks. Of great assistance also were Pete and Tina Pennock, Joe Mesi, Bill Steinberg, Millie Vircsik, Regina Simmonds, Ruth Riley, Bernice Foley, Carl Francis, Sandi Robinson, Judy Bitto, Larry Walker, Ellen Adams, my first editor John Keller, my agent and friend Ray Lincoln, and, as always, my wife, Eileen.
And Bill Hemsing, rifle-armed outfielder who stopped the ground balls that I missed and who hits the curve ball today better than ever.
For any inaccuracies contained in this account, I apologize. Where history could not be confirmed, it trembled at the mercy of my imperfect if well-meaning memory.