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.

Fun, Sexy and Patriotic: My All-Time Favorite ‘Call Me Maybe’ Video

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Another experiment. To see if I can post a video here on Kevin Nelson Writer. This is my all-time favorite “Call Me Maybe” video, even better than the one done last year by the US Olympic Swim Team starring Missy Franklin, and that one was pretty good. This is fun and sexy and patriotic to boot. Enjoy—

 

Billy and George: Match Made in Baseball Hell

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Billy and George

Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner at a 1978 press conference.

Billy Martin, who was hired and fired by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner many times, on what it was like to be an employee of George’s: “George is the greatest person in the world so long as you don’t work for him.” —From the upcoming ebook, Baseball’s Funniest Insults: George Steinbrenner’s Yankees, to be published by Southampton Books.

Fiction: Except from my New Short Story, “The Deep Freeze”

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The opening paragraphs of my new crime noir short story, “The Deep Freeze,” second draft:

Everyone in prison is a liar. The inmate population, I mean. Not a one of them did it. Not a one of them did the crime for which they’ve been sentenced and for which they are spending a lifetime behind bars. If you listen to them they were all set up by the cops or victimized or “wronged” in some way.

But not me. I freely confess that I did it. I murdered Arthur “Artie” Browning, screen agent for the stars. Kill an agent? There are worst crimes, I think.

So color me guilty. For this offense I am now receiving lifetime board and care here at this federal facility located somewhere in the dusty reaches of the Oklahoma panhandle. My first scheduled parole hearing is February 2035. I’ve got nothing but time to think about Geena and how I got mixed up in her “diabolical scheme” (to use the D.A.’s overheated rhetoric) to end her marriage and her husband in one fell swoop.

Ah, sweet Geena…

A brief sample only. More upcoming. Stay tuned.