We here in Ontario are about to go into another lockdown, and the air outside my window is adance with snow flurries, but it’s Opening Day, damn it, and so we rejoice and find gladness in the promise of a new season. Tomorrow, April 2, is the official publication date of The Only Way Is the Steady Way, so chosen because it’s also the twentieth anniversary of Ichiro’s MLB debut. It’s also the fifth anniversary of the publication of The Utility of Boredom. That one was a coincidence, but it’s still worth noting. Regarding the former, there have been some developments—articles, appearances, etc.—that I’ll endeavour to round up here:
- The Walrus (“Canada’s Conversation”) features an excerpt of the book, “Why Home Runs Are Bad for Baseball” (from the essay “American Berserk”)
- I appeared on a recent episode of Justin McGuire’s Baseball By the Book podcast (listen to it here or anywhere you get your podcasts)
- For Baseball Prospectus, I mourned the passing of the New York-Penn League
- For the Pandemic Baseball Book Club, I interviewed Luke Epplin about his new book, Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball
- I answered a few questions about the book for the Pandemic Baseball Book Club’s newsletter
- Registration is now open for the virtual book launch presented by the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival and hosted by the estimable Sean Cranbury of the Real Vancouver Writers’ Series (April 25, 3:00 p.m. EST)
That’s it for now, but there’ll be a lot more stuff in the near future, including interviews and podcasts. Stay tuned.
andrew (g) forbes 
Your writing style is very good, similar to Roger Angel, but that book spent way too much time on Ichiro. Every other chapter was Ichiro plus he is in the cover. Most people are not into Ichiro that deeply and you could have covered other players
Thanks for the comment, Sam, and the compliment. Angell is a hero, of course. As for your problem with the book, I suppose I figured that if people weren’t interested in Ichiro, they wouldn’t read it, given that his name is in the title and his image on the cover. The book is most certainly preoccupied with Ichiro, and that was the point. I’m sorry it didn’t connect with you.