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Continuing our 2024 CASEY Award finalists series, writer and historian⁠ Tim Newby⁠⁠, author of ⁠The Original Louisville Slugger⁠, a fun, thorough and important narrative covering the life and baseball career of Pete Browning, joins the show. As one of the best hitters of the 19th century, the deeply flawed but charismatic and pioneering figure has largely been forgotten more than a century later, although Tim’s endeavor has worked to bring much-needed awareness to the man and his influence. Enjoy!

Here are some highlights –

4:40-5:08: “So I took the rest of the summer and just started researching and digging in, and I really found that this story is a story that I could tell. And stories that I can tell are often about overlooked, underrated kind of influential figures or bands or musicians, whatever it may be. And Pete was that to me. Most baseball fans aren’t really in tune with 19th-century baseball. Most baseball fans have no idea who Pete Browning is. But all baseball fans know of the Louisville Slugger.”

22:48-23:53: “There’s a level of thought to it that we need these bats, and he eventually gets the first bat turned by what becomes Hillerich & Bradsby. But it also is convenient for him as somebody who’s odd and eccentric and superstitious like him. Putting so much stock into your bats makes it easy when you’re having a bad day to have a reason for it. ‘It’s not my fault. These bats only have a predetermined number of hits.’ … Pete’s bat was a massive piece of lumber that very few people could swing easily. … Pete’s bat was 48 ounces, and to put that into perspective, Aaron Judge swings, I think, a 33-ounce bat. When Aaron Judge gets on the on-deck circle…the batting donut weighs 15 ounces. So that means he’s warming up with a 48-ounce bat, which is what Pete swung on a daily basis.”

33:21-34:14: “The separating fact from myth and fiction was a big goal, but it was [also] something I really enjoyed doing with this. One of the things that was really helpful was I went to the Hall of Fame and there was a sports writer from Louisville, AH Tarvin, and his dad had been around in the 19th century. AH Tarvin would’ve been a young child at the time, but he had some memories from then. … I was lucky enough to go sit and look at all his papers and writings and notes, but again there was no one Rosetta Stone moment of opening it up and it said, ‘Here’s who Pete is’ and ‘Here’s what was true and what wasn’t.’ It was sometimes finding the answers, sometimes making a good educated speculation on it, sometimes finding a little bit of the story there.”

35:10-35:24: “As a writer, as a historian, you can’t beat that direct quote, right? I can say it and it can still be what they said, but when you hear how Pete said it and it comes from his mouth, I just think it gives it a different weight. And it allows you to be in the moment there.”

If you like what you’ve heard, be sure to check out The Original Louisville Slugger: The Life and Times of Forgotten Baseball Legend Pete Browning.

The previous book special in our CASEY Award series, which featured Eric Vickrey, can be found here.

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Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod.