Rob Skead with the 100-year-old, wooden bat that inspired Hitting Glory.

Inspiration

In April 2000, I was fortunate enough to purchase a 100 year-old, wooden baseball bat at a bargain price. When the old Spalding® bat arrived, I immediately displayed it on the wall in our family room. I never imagined the bat would generate a story. Here's what happened:

The bat's unique, old-fashioned shape and brown patina mesmerized me. I noticed there were initials - RM - carved on the bottom of the bat. I wondered who RM was. How old was he when he received the bat? Did he hit any homeruns with it? What if RM became a major league player later in life and this was his bat when he was a kid? 

That last question hit me like a line drive between the eyes. I imagined that the bat once belonged to Lou Gehrig when he was a kid. I then imagined what would happen if a child had the bat today and started using it in his games.

The result of all this imagining is HITTING GLORY - A BASEBALL BAT ADVENTURE.

If you do enjoy the book, I would appreciate it if you could recommend it to your friends and family. Your "word of mouth" advertising would sure help the book penetrate the competitive marketplace.

Hey… Suddenly, I feel the urge to obtain a vintage fishing reel, old baseball trophy or American Revolution document. Who knows -- maybe a story will come from it!

Rob Skead

Hitting Glory

(September 2001; $6.99; Youth Fiction)

Hitting Glory is the heartwarming story about Lou Gibson, an eleven-year old boy who finds an old, vintage, wooden baseball bat in his school's basement. When Lou recalls that the most famous graduate of his school, Public School #132 in New York City, was Yankee great Lou Gehrig, he immediately sets off on a mission to prove that the bat once belonged to "The Pride of the Yankees." Lou's search sends him on a journey of triumph, tragedy and discovery. 

Click here to read reviews and order your own copy of Hitting Glory: A Baseball Bat Adventure 

 

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