Operation Bullpen

Operation Bullpen: The Inside Story of the Biggest Forgery Ring in American History is the amazing true story of the high-flying national forgery ring that forged the autographs of sports stars and celebrities and ripped off American consumers for more than $100 million, before being busted by a dramatic three-year FBI undercover investigation.

Now optioned by Hollywood and under development to be a movie, Operation Bullpen has won rave reviews from readers, critics and collectors. The New York Daily News called it "a terrific account of how a pot-smoking master forger and his friends made $100 million selling fake autographs before they were busted by the FBI." The Oakland Tribune described it as "fascinating. Remarkable. It's either the sports book or the crime book of the year. Either way, it's a movie crying to be made." Yet another reviewer said it "reads like a John Grisham legal thriller, with the good guys and bad guys playing a cat-and mouse game of unprecedented scope in the world of big-money autographs."

Author Kevin Nelson has appeared on ESPN (watch it here), truTV and national radio programs talking about the case. The National Baseball Hall of Fame in New York is planning a museum exhibit on forged memorabilia in part based on Operation Bullpen, possibly to be held in 2010.

With exclusive interviews with forgers and counterfeit memorabilia dealers, as well as the FBI agents who brought them down, Nelson tells how a colorful and at times comical band of southern California crooks produced the notorious Mother Teresa baseball and as many as one million other forgeries, selling them on eBay, the home TV shopping channels, and in malls across the nation.

"What fascinates people about this case," says Nelson, who writes about forgery for Autograph Magazine, Sports Collectors Digest, and other publications, "is that it's such a good crime story. There's even a whodunit angle to it because one of the kingpins of the forgery ring turns against his fellow crooks and puts on a wire to go undercover for the FBI. People are shocked when they find out who that person is."

Read more reviews, excerpts and see a gallery of forgeries at a special website devoted to the book, www.operationbullpen.com.