We're in the Hall of Fame!

A month before the induction of six players for the Class of 2018, #DiamondsFromTheDugout was given the honor of leading off the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's 2018 Authors Series schedule. This prestigious annual series showcases top baseball books, and "Diamonds" features more than 40 Hall of Famers among the 115 baseball legends in its pages.

Thank you so much to the entire Hall of Fame staff for your hospitality, as this national No. 1 bestseller is now officially in the museum! On June 6, I gave a 45-minute presentation in the 55-seat bullpen theater, using their state-of-the-art large screen and podium computer to show pictures, videos, quotes and facts related to the book's stars, then signed copies in the Library Atrium. Patrons can find signed copies throughout this summer in the Museum Bookstore.

This book came full circle with this event, held in the same wing of the hallowed institution where it all began during my coverage of the historic 2007 Hall of Fame Induction Weekend for MLB.com. I remember setting out that Monday to write a book about 3,000 random hits, and then Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson telling me that same year about the one hit that had meant the most in his life. Brooks provided the Foreword for this book. Buy it now

Ready for January 6!

Here's the new display at Barnes & Noble Palisades Center mall, ready for the big #DiamondsFromTheDugout author event and bookfair at 2 pm ET on Saturday, Jan. 6! I'll discuss the No. 1 bestselling baseball book and sign copies, and the bookfair will benefit the Clarkstown Family Resource Center - part of the massive Clarkstown School District. I'll stay there until about 5, so there will be plenty of time to sign, but get there early if you want to catch a baseball discussion. If you're in the NYC area that day, come out and join us, for a good cause! See the book tour page for the latest updates on official author events and the #BarnesandNobleStormingTour.

MLB Network Radio 12/16 & 12/23

It was a pleasure to spend the last three consecutive weekends talking DIAMONDS FROM THE DUGOUT and baseball on MLB Network Radio, and that included an unprecedented doubleheader of sorts over the last two Saturdays on the SiriusXM network's "Remember When" show. The first audio clip here is from my Dec. 16 appearance with legendary NYC broadcaster Ed Randall, who was without fellow host and career-long Red Sox legend Rico Petrocelli. (By the way, the segment immediately followed Alvin & The Chipmunks and their holiday hit, providing context to the introductory comments.) The second audio clip is an encore return so that I could ask Rico for his thoughts about Yaz's story in the book, from the 1967 AL pennant-clinching game. Listen to that one, and you'll even get bonus material not in the book, because Rico gave me his own No. 1 hit.

No. 1 Bestseller!

DIAMONDS FROM THE DUGOUT was listed today at No. 1 on the Barnes & Noble Top 100 bestseller list for Baseball, and it has moved up to #13 in Sports, passing Tom Brady & Shalene Flanagan. Thanks to everyone who is enjoying this new book from me and Blue River Press, with a Foreword and inspiration from the great Brooks Robinson. See the BN Sports Top 100.

Thanks to the Grandyman

I interviewed Curtis Granderson during the 2016 World Series in his hometown of Chicago, the morning after he received the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award for his humanitarian efforts, especially helping children. He was giving a tour of the new University of Illinois-Chicago sports facility that he made possible with an endowment. After that interview, I asked him what hit meant the most to him and why, and the result is on page 37 of DIAMONDS FROM THE DUGOUT. I hope you will enjoy Curtis' offering, complete with a powerful everyday life lesson. I extend my thanks to the Dodgers' left fielder, a 300-double, 300-homer club member and postseason regular, for the kind book recommendation that he posted on Twitter!

Milestone with a marker

Barnes & Noble Fifth Avenue signing on Dec. 21, 2017

Wednesday's signing at Barnes & Noble Court Street in Brooklyn was the 39th BN store across the country I have hit on the DIAMONDS FROM THE DUGOUT book tour since our October launch, and Thursday was the milestone 40th at the BN Fifth Avenue location at 46th Street. You can visit the Book Tour page here at marknewmanbooks.com/tour and see the stops.

Thanks to all of the amazing BN team members I have met along the way, starting with our launch at the Evansville (IN) location, followed by The Grove in Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale and St. Louis and New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delware visits as well. That's a lot of signed copies of the book Cal Ripken called "the perfect gift for any baseball fan," and I also want to say thanks for everyone who has gone to those stores and snapped them up! Please make sure you like the official Facebook page at facebook.com/MarkNewmanAuthor and follow instagram.com/marknewmanauthor so we can share our experiences with the book!

Signing at Barnes & Noble Court Street in Brooklyn on Dec. 20, 2017

Thanks to the Iron Man

On Sept. 6, 1995, I was in the press box at Camden Yards covering Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,131st consecutive game played for the Baltimore Orioles, the night he somehow surpassed Lou Gehrig's "unbreakable" record. I also treasure the memory of standing next to Cal as he signed every last autograph on Main Street out front of the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum at about 1 a.m. the night before he gave his Hall of Fame Induction speech in 2007.

This post today by Cal on his Facebook page ranks right up there on my own thrill-o-meter from No. 8. Humble thanks to Cal for sharing his memory and lesson of his own personal favorite hit (it has to do with his father), and thanks for this endorsement of DIAMONDS FROM THE DUGOUT! This is from his Facebook page.

"A great new baseball book from Mark Newman... Brooks even wrote the foreword!"

Cal's must-read #DiamondsFromTheDugout is perfect for all baseball fans. Grab your copy here: marknewmanbooks.com.

Over the river and through the woods, to BN stores we go

Barnes & nOBLE STATEN ISLAND BOOK SIGNING ON 12/18/17

UPDATED 12/19/17.
BOOK TOUR PAGE JUST UPDATED - 38 BARNES & NOBLE APPEARANCES AND COUNTING...

From Friday through Monday, I signed each day at Barnes & Nobles stores throughout New Jersey and New York, bringing the total of BN stores visited to 38. This past weekend included a Barnes & Noble author event at Paramus (NJ) on Friday night, then the third consecutive weekend of #BarnesandNobleStormingTour store signings within the Northeast, then a meet & greet event at Barnes & Noble in Nanuet (NY) on Sunday, and then a visit to Staten Island to sign many books they have in stock. That was pretty cool, considering I usually am running over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in the opposite direction for the NYC Marathon! Great stores!

The first #BarnesandNobleStormingTour across 9 Connecticut BN stores was such a success, the Jeep made the trip on the next weekend through crazy snow and to 10 BN stores throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. This #BarnesandNobleStormingTour went to: Clifton, Clark, Edison, East Brunswick, Princeton, Moorestown, Cherry Hill (all in NJ on Saturday), then Rittenhouse Square in downtown Philadelphia (after 20-minute MLB Network Radio appearance to talk about the book while parked outside the Philly store!), Concord Pike in Wilmington, Delaware, and finally Freehold (NJ).

See the @MarkNewmanAuthor Instagram page for all the posts with a ton of pics and videos, and thanks to the BN stores that also posted about the signings! This has been an incredible journey, not just getting a book from manuscript to market, but this holiday season of helping to put DIAMONDS FROM THE DUGOUT into eager baseball fans' hands for gifts!

All those stores now have signed copies waiting for you, at least while they last. Give them sticker copies for a gift!

Book Review by Perfect Pitch

Thanks to Susan Spector -- Met Opera oboe, longtime Mets season ticket holder with husband Garry, and staple of the MLB.com/blogs community for a decade -- for her review of DIAMONDS FROM THE DUGOUT on the Perfect Pitch blog! Please visit Susan's blog and check out the review. Great custom beret, too! Here's an excerpt:

      Fans, the media, statisticians, bloggers, and baseball historians have time-honored criteria for quantifying or qualifying an individual athlete’s performance relative to his peers.  They are also afforded their respective platforms for self-cultivated “highlight reels” of their own selection.  Some of the crowning points shared with Mark by these ballplayers might be seen as relatively unremarkable, from a strictly baseball point of view; what is noteworthy is the reason why this is the hit selected by the player himself and given its own chapter in Mark’s book.

     The subject of each chapter is certainly a measure of athletic accomplishment, but more often a player’s selection had more to do with the context in which the hit was made. Mark skillfully weaves together the specifics of the play with anecdotal information from the player.  Reading these vignettes, one can easily visualize the whimsical grin playing across the face of a player or the slight misting up of a player’s eyes involved in the hit’s memory and his retelling a story that, for that player at least, has obviously become the stuff of myth or legend.  The inclusion of each player’s “back story”, the opportunity for him to “set the stage” and to add personal embellishments to his saga:  this is what makes the book fascinating reading.

Click here for the full review >>