Guys (and Gals) Should Read ‘Johnny Tremain’

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This is a review I just submitted to Guys Read, a website and program run by Jon Scieszka to encourage boys to read. The book is Johnny Tremain, an historical novel written for young people by Esther Forbes. If you have young boys or girls looking for a book to read this summer (or next school year), this one is hard to beat:

Johnny Tremain

This marvelous historical novel is the story of a young boy, Johnny Tremain, during Revolutionary War times. It tells how he became involved in the events that shaped our country’s founding: the Boston Tea Party and the battles of Concord and Lexington. A silver apprentice by trade, Johnny learns to ride horses and deliver secret messages to the likes of Paul Revere, John Hancock and other Sons of Liberty, a patriot group fighting for America’s independence from England. Written by a Pullittzer Prize winning novelist and historian, the book is full of adventure, excitement, and marvelous story-telling.

I read Johnny Tremain as a boy, read it aloud a few years ago with my (now) 14-year-old son, and recently read it a third time with my 12-year-old son, who just did a book report on it for his sixth grade English class. The book gets better with each reading. Warmly and thoroughly recommended.

 

A Thumbnail Guide to All Things Operation Bullpen

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Due to my recent articles for Sports Collectors Digest and Sports Collectors Daily, lots of people have become aware of the Operation Bullpen story for the first time. If you are one of those people, here is a thumbnail multimedia guide to bring you up to date on what is truly a fascinating bit of criminal (and forgery) history:

• My Operation Bullpen website, with excerpts, photos, and reviews. Click here.

Operation Bullpen website

• The articles in my aforementioned series, which summarize the Operation Bullpen case and show photos that had previously never been made public. Here.

• Mastermind TV’s half-hour program, which aired originally on Court TV (now TruTV). Broken into two fifteen-minute segments. Here and here.

• The official FBI version of the Operation Bullpen case. Presented here by FBI Headquarters in Washington and here by the San Diego FBI, which was the chief agency investigating the scam.

• Amazon Kindle. The book is available in print and ebook. Kindle’s “Look Inside” will let you read the Introduction and the first three chapters. Right here.

Part 2: Masterminds Looks at Operation Bullpen

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Here’s part two of the Masterminds TV program on Operation Bullpen. I posted the first half of the thirty-minute episode on a previous blog. If you’d like to see that one, click here.

I remember being interviewed for this show. The producers flew me down to San Diego for the day and interviewed me in a hotel room downtown. Since the name of the show was “Masterminds,” they told me that the more I said the word “mastermind,” the better chance I would have of surviving the editor’s cuts and making it onto the final version of the program. I got on the air plenty, as it turned out. Enjoy Part Two:

Entertaining Masterminds TV episode on Operation Bullpen

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In 2006, the same year Operation Bullpen was published, Red Apple Entertainment of Canada made a TV program on the case that was broadcast nationally on Court TV (now TruTV). The episode was called “Foul Ball,” and it was part of the “Masterminds” series which ran for several years before being cancelled. For years bootleg versions of the program appeared on YouTube but in 2012 Masterminds released all the episodes in the series, including Foul Ball,” on its channel. Now you can watch the entire program in high quality digital format.

The Masterminds people (who interviewed me extensively for the program) got a few things wrong, and it is only a partial telling of the story (really, if you want the full story, read the book), but it is an entertaining program and well worth a look. It includes interviews with Tim Fitzsimmons, lead FBI agent in the case; John Ferreira, Bullpen’s undercover agent; and yours truly. The half-hour episode is broken into two parts. Here is the first part:

Operation Bullpen: The Book With More Lives Than A Cat

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My book, Operation Bullpen: The Inside Story of the Biggest Forgery Scam in American History was published in 2006, and it has more lives than a cat.

Most books have a certain sort of life to them. You write them, they’re published, you do author publicity for them, and then they fade slowly from view and fall out of print. Not so with Operation Bullpen, which continues to sell books and stir comment to this day.

I am just finishing up a series on Operation Bullpen and autograph forgery for Sports Collectors Digest and Sports Collectors Daily, and you can see these articles here. And next month, as I explain in this post, I will begin a new column/blog for SCD on the less savory aspects of the collecting hobby.

Operation Bullpen book cover

Operation Bullpen, the book, is about to go into a second printing, and if you point your mouse right here you can visit a special website wholly devoted to it where we have photos and excerpts.

We sold the option to the movies a few years ago and a screenplay based on the book continues to make the rounds in Hollywood, looking for money to finance it. The National Baseball Hall of Fame has plans to stage an exhibit based on Operation Bullpen, the book and the case, and although these plans have been on hold for a while, a major exhibit in Cooperstown could still occur.

So stick around. As Al Pacino said in Scent of a Woman, “Whoo-ah. We’re just getting started here.”

 

 

My Amazon Author Page: Books to You, Memories for Me

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As I continue to learn about, and experiment with, this website, I am continuing to learn about, and experiment with, social media. Lots of learning and experimenting going on here, I’ll say!

I’ve had an Amazon Author Page for some time but never really utilized it much, even though Amazon remains a top seller of my books (as with most authors). It features my most recent blog posts, latest tweets, a bio and picture of yours truly, and a listing of my books and how to order them.

Baseball's Even Greater Insults

It’s funny. If you happen to go on the site and see all the books I’ve written over the years (some more worthy than others), you will see a list of, well, books. But when I scan that lineup I instead see periods of my life. Many years ago I wrote and compiled a series of sports insults books—one of which, Baseball’s Even Greater Insults, is still selling as an ebook. But when I think about that book I recall how, at that time, while working as a newspaper reporter, I needed more income because we had a new baby in the house to support. So the book—a sequel to an earlier baseball insults book of mine—was a relatively quick and easy way to bring in some more money for my family.

Click here to see my Amazon author page. It may look like a bunch of books to you, but it represents memories to me.

‘Bring A Trailer’ Has a Love for Vintage Cars

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1965 Koch Chevy Special

If you like old cars, and even if you don’t, you may enjoy one of my favorite car website/blogs, Bring A Trailer. Its motto is “Barn Finds, Rally Cars, and Needles in the Haystack.” It provides listings of cars you won’t find for sale at your local dealership, such as this 1965 Koch-Chevy Special for sale in Atlanta for $60,000 or best offer.

I don’t have any intention of buying any of the cars I see on the site (it sends daily emails to subscribers, which I heartily recommend), but I thoroughly enjoy seeing and reading about these fine old vehicles that BAT—its shorthand acronym—has dug up for those who are in the market for older automobiles and trucks. The editors have a sense of humor and don’t take themselves too seriously, and clearly have a great affection for these cars, which is the perfect combination for a website of this sort. Five stars.

New Column on Sports Collecting Crime Begins Next Month

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Beginning next month, I will write a new column/blog for Sports Collectors Digest, the leading publication in the sports collecting industry. The column is an outgrowth of my series on Operation Bullpen which has been running in SCD in recent weeks (and also before that, Sports Collectors Daily). The new column, which will run every month in both the online and print editions, will be about crime in “the hobby” today—autograph forgery, counterfeit cards, fake “game used gear,” dubious auction practices, and more. Should be interesting. I’ll keep you posted as I learn more.

New Fiction: “Society Women”

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A new short story of mine, “Society Women, is now being considered for publication as a Kindle Single. As I told the Kindle people, this is the fictional story of a chance encounter, one night, between a young, attractive single man and three married women who belong to “The Society,” as they call it. This is an adult story, with adult situations, that is full of sharp dialog, romance, and fantasy. This excerpt is from early in the story. The women have met the man at a bar and are trying to decide if he is worthy of them. During this process they discuss what to call themselves. Because they’re all married, for obvious reasons they must remain anonymous. Thus, the need for pseudonyms:

They ordered him a Glenlivet. The two other women were having Roederer Cristal Brut. They asked the waiter to bring a taster’s sampling of cheeses and a baguette, and a dozen Tomales Bay oysters on the half shell. “So what shall we be tonight?” the third woman said after they were alone again.

“How about Great Ladies of the Dance?”

“We’ve done that.”

“Yes, but it was such fun. I was Gelsey Kirkland, you were Isadora. I loved it.”

“Oh let’s do something different, something off the hook. I know. First Ladies!”

“I’ll be Michelle,” volunteered one.

“Okay then,” said another. “I’ll be Hillary!”

This induced peals of laughter from the three. “Poor man. He’ll be limp as a wet noodle.”

They settled at last on mythological goddesses. “Diana,” said the woman in the gray sweater, who had long straight black hair well past her shoulders. “The goddess of the hunt.” She growled and with one hand made a pawing motion like a jungle cat in Josh’s direction.

“I’m Helen of Troy,” said the one with the Spanish accent.

“She wasn’t a goddess,” Diana reminded her. “She was a mortal.”

“So? Men fought battles over her. That’s good enough for me.”

“I’ll be Aphrodite,” said the blonde.

“That is so obvious,” said Diana.

“And yet so apt,” rejoined Helen. “She’s been smitten from the start. What do you think, Josh? All right with you if our shy friend here pretends to be the Greek Goddess of Love?”

Continue reading →

How the Operation Bullpen Crooks Spun Paper into Forgery Gold

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The latest in my series on autograph forgery just rolled off the presses—oh, wait a second, nobody much uses printing presses anymore. Okay, so it rolled off into the digital realm, and here are the opening graphs:

The nationwide autograph forgery ring brought down by the FBI in 1999 may seem like ancient history to some collectors. But the ring’s damage to the hobby continues to be felt today, most particularly in the area of cuts.

A “cut,” in the language of collectors, is essentially a piece of paper signed by a sports star or celebrity. The Bullpen ring, according to the Justice Department prosecutor who helped send several of its members to prison, “practically invented cuts.” Before them, he said, “cuts practically did not exist. After them, cuts were everywhere.” … … …

To read more, and to see cool pictures of forgeries that have never appeared anywhere before—either in print or online—point that mouse of yours right here.