Happiness Is Like A Cur Dog

With a raconteur's wit and keen eye for detail, Nelson "Nellie" King spins tales of his journey in professional baseball. From the farm teams of the deep south in the early 1940s, to the pitcher's mound, and then to the Pirates' broadcasting booth in the 1970s, King provides readers with a front row seat to the momentous changes he witnessed in his beloved game. The ball parks, dugouts, and road trips of yesteryear jump to life on these pages, as do the personalities of Pirate legends like Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski, and Willie Stargell. King also has much to say about the business of baseball, from the expansion of franchises to dramatic salary increases. His humor, warmth, and insights will please die-hard Pirates fans as well as baseball history buffs.

This painstakingly researched book by Douglas J. Gladstone examines the plight of 874 Major League Baseball players who played between 1947 and 1979, all with brief trials in the majors, careers figuratively "just long enough to drink a cup of coffee." Since 1980, Major League Baseball players have needed one day of service credit for health benefits and 43 days of service credit to be eligible for a retirement allowance, but those former ballplayers who played during the 1947-1979 seasons were not included retroactively in the amended vesting requirement, and so receive no pensions for the time they gave to our national pastime. These men, the author suggests, have gulped bitter cups of coffee. In his careful examination of this issue, which includes many interviews with former players and some poignant stories of their plight, Gladstone asks his readers to examine our national relationship to sports and its heroes, as well as our relationships with those who precede us in the game of life. A lifelong baseball fan, DOUGLAS J. GLADSTONE is a journalist by training, whose published articles have appeared in the Chicago Sun Times, Baseball Digest and the San Diego Jewish World, among others. This is his first book. DAVE MARASH (Foreword) has been a working journalist for more than 50 years. Best known for his 16 years as a correspondent for ABC News Nightline, Marash won Emmy Awards for his coverage of the wars in Nicaragua and Bosnia, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the explosion that downed TWA Flight 800. He anchored the opening season of Baseball Tonight on ESPN and did play-by-play coverage of the New York Knicks and Rangers.

Sweet ’60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates is the joint product of 44 authors and editors from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) who have pooled their efforts to create a portrait of the 1960 team which pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the last 60 years. Game Seven of the 1960 World Series between the Pirates and the Yankees swung back and forth. Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning at Forbes Field, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates, 53-21, and held a 7–4 lead in the deciding game. The Pirates hadn’t won a World Championship since 1925, while the Yanks had won 17 of them in the same stretch of time, seven of the preceding 11 years. The Pirates scored five times in the bottom of the eighth and took the lead, only to cough it up in the top of the ninth. The game was tied 9–9 in the bottom of the ninth. At 3:36, Bill Mazeroski swung at Ralph Terry’s slider. As Curt Smith writes in these pages: “There goes a long drive hit deep to left field!” said Gunner. “Going back is Yogi Berra! Going back! You can kiss it good-bye!” No smooch was ever lovelier. “How did we do it, Possum? How did we do it?” Prince said finally, din all around. Woods didn’t know—only that, “I’m looking at the wildest thing since I was on Hollywood Boulevard the night World War II ended.” David had toppled Goliath. It was a blow that awakened a generation, one that millions of people saw on television, one of TV’s first iconic World Series moments.

“Evanovich…with a dash of CSI.” – Publishers Weekly (review of Lucky Stiff) Lucky’s story comes full circle in the conclusion of the Lucky O’Toole Vegas Adventures. Home: A refuge. An escape. Where the heart is. After a high-body count trip through Europe, Lucky O’Toole, the Chief Problem Solver for the Babylon, Las Vegas’s most over the top Strip casino, is home and searching for peace, quiet and a quick fix for a broken heart. She should know better. Her father is failing in his fight to regain his health after taking a bullet to the chest. Her mother, Mona, is increasingly desperate to be “useful” which usually results in her being anything but. Her love life is in shambles. The DEA is after her, but not giving a hint as to why. The NBA is in town for their All-Star break extravaganza highlighting the new rookies. Somebody got cute and put a Bugatti on top of her hotel. And a dead guy turns up in delivery bay seven with his skull bashed in. Not exactly the soft reentry Lucky had hoped for. But she can handle it. Until her father, after checking himself out of the hospital, summons Lucky for a “family” meeting. A secret from his past puts the future of the Babylon and the family in jeopardy. And he expects Lucky to fix it. Worse, a financier who played cat-and-mouse with Lucky around the globe, striving to leave her holding the bag, could hold the key to her saving it all. Can she trust him? Does she have a choice? Find out by getting your copy of this light, funny, romantic mystery today! AN INTERVIEW WITH DEBORAH COONTS Why did you decide to write humor? I’m not sure I decided to add snark to the Lucky books, specifically to Lucky’s own voice, it just happened that way. When I was a kid, my mouth always got me into trouble. Finally, I’ve found a way to harness the sarcasm for the Forces of Good—or at least in a way not to anger my grandmother. And when Lucky started talking to me, she had a strong dose of sass in her. The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure series is hard to categorize. Is that by design? When I set out to write Wanna Get Lucky?, I knew I wanted to write a romp through Las Vegas. I had the characters and the setting but no real understanding of narrative drive. So, I threw a young woman out of a tour helicopter into the middle of the Pirate Show and let the story unfold. A bit of murder to keep the plot moving, some wisecracking and Vegas mischief to make you laugh, and some romance to keep it interesting. A bit of a mash up, but it works. PRAISE FOR THE LUCKY O’TOOLE VEGAS ADVENTURE SERIES “Lucky’s story is funny, fast-paced, exuberant and brilliantly realized.” - Susan Wiggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Get ready to win big--with a novel that will keep you glued to the pages all the way to the end.” - Brenda Novak, New York Times & USA Today bestselling author "More fun than a winning streak in Vegas. Lucky O’Toole is a character with brains, beauty, and a wry sense of humor. Readers will want to meet her again—and soon." - Diane Mott Davidson, New York Times bestselling author "Deborah Coonts...entrusts the sleuthing to a brainy beauty who sees the lighter side of human folly." - New York Times Book Review "Las Vegas is the perfect setting for this witty tale of misdirection and larger-than-life characters. Fans of J. A. Konrath's Jack Daniels series will love this." - Library Journal, starred review “A whirlwind of a kooky crime novel, and readers will enjoy every minute of it. Coonts provides the perfect solution for readers waiting for the next Stephanie Plum book.” - Booklist