I've been sitting on this news for, oh, months now. Now I can finally tell you.
The Bless You Boys staff, along with some of your favorite online Tigers writers and a couple of other big names have been working hard this winter to put together the Maple Street Press Detroit Tigers Annual 2011. The finishing touches -- or re-touches, given today's news -- are being put together and it will be available on news stands March 1.
You can pre-order it at the MSP website right now.
I am the main editor for the book and contributed about 25% of the content, but there is absolutely no way I could have done it without the support of an amazing Tigers blogosphere, as well as a wonderful Bless You Boys staff. We've all poured countless hours into this project, and I'm very proud with how the results have been so far.
I'll have a more detailed post a bit closer to the release date, but I just want to whet your tastebuds with a sample of the names who have been involved.
- John Parent and Matt Snyder of Motor City Bengals
- Mike Rogers, Matt Wallace, David Tokarz and especially the editing help of Allison Hagen, all of your very own Bless You Boys.
- Lee Panas of Tiger Tales and Beyond Batting Average, one of Baseball America's top 10 books of 2010.
- Bill Ferris of TigsTown, formerly of Detroit Tigers Weblog
- Mike McClary of The Daily Fungo
- Ian Casselberry of SB Nation Detroit and Yahoo! Sports' Big League Stew.
- Q&As with Phil Coke and Max St. Pierre, with interviews by Baseball Prospectus' David Laurila (formerly of like half an hour south of Marquette, actually).
- Interviews with Jacob Turner, Scot Drucker, Robbie Weinhardt, Casper Wells and MLB.com's Jason Beck that helped contribute to stories.
- Tom Gage of the Detroit News, with interviews with several people who knew Ernie Harwell
-
Will Rhymes of your very own Detroit Tigers, with a piece on Will Rhymes of your very own Detroit Tigers
We've got sections looking ahead to 2011, a glance at the farm system, and reflecting on what Ernie, Sparky and others meant to the organization and its fans.
So that's why we've been a bit busy around here at times as we put together a 128-page, full color book along with the wonderful staff of Maple Street Press.
I hope you'll pre-order a copy, and I know you'll enjoy it!