*When Stan Hochman wrote his article on the book three weeks ago, I received many emails. One was from a guy who's name I'll keep anonymous. He was going through a tough time and didn't have the money to buy one. I felt very strongly about sending him a copy for free and so I did.
He received it Monday afternoon...this is his email to me today...
Hi Craig;
Your book arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon and I just finished it (while the Phillies were on TV, I must add.) I did cry a couple of times while I read it and a lot of the things you wrote I've been working on in my life, but, there are a lot of things you said that I will implement in my daily routine. I have let go of my anger, but, the source of my anger is gone and quite a few people remarked to me that they've noticed that! My best friend whom I've known since I was a junior in High School who is studying Buddhism told me some time ago about performing "random acts of kindness" and you mention the same thing! Wow! This synchronicity thing really blows my mind! Thanks for mentioning Bob Prince and Mike Lange, I grew up in Pittsburgh listening to both of them and I got to meet Mr. Lange last year at a luncheon in Pittsburgh that my soon to be ex-wife suggested that I attend because I felt bad about never getting the opportunity to meet Harry Kalas and I wanted to tell Mr. Lange the same things you mentioned that you wanted to say to Harry in the book.
I'm feeling better as the days go by, and I'm not "beating myself up" as much as I used to, as a matter of fact, last Friday I sent a down payment of $100 to a Philadelphia lawyer to start the divorce ball rolling. I feel that once I can get this behind me, the sooner the better and hopefully, I'll return to Pittsburgh in September where my family and my best friend are for good. One of the few regrets I have is once I go back there, I may never be able to return to the "Bank" to see the Phillies, but, I can always go to PNC Park whenever they are in town.
Thank you so very much for the copy of the book and for signing it also! You don't know how much it meant to me when I received your e-mail saying you'd send me a free, autographed copy! I was dwelling on a lot of negative things then, and your kind gesture really picked me up! Once I saw the book in my mailbox, I basically devoured it overnight! Too bad we couldn't be in Philly at the same time, I'd love to see a Phillies game with you, perhaps it will come to pass, you never know!
"Wheels" just mentioned Tug McGraw during the game about how "Tugger" named his pitches, I used to love his "Peggy Lee" fastball! "Is that all there is?!" LOL! He also mentioned a Bo Derek fastball, but, I don't get that one, what was it a 10?!
Again, thanks for the book and the autograph, and keep up the good work, believe it or not, it has been beneficial to me! I also was a great admirer of Brian Piccolo when I was a kid, but I think the original movie with Jimmy Caan and Billy Dee Williams was the better of the two!
Thanks again and may God bless you and your daughter, your pal,
XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXX (getting back them "High Hopes" again)
P.S. Your book is now in a "place of honor" on my bookshelf between my books on Roberto Clemente and Harry Kalas!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
What Would I Tell the Phillies?
Last night the Phillies beat the Indians in dramatic fashion with a walk-off homer in the ninth by Jimmy Rollins.
It was a great win but they just haven't been playing well for over a month now and it's been wearing on the fanbase and probably on the team.
We expected them to run away with the division and instead they are 5 games out behind the Braves...the most undeserving team in the history of baseball. (14 Division titles and ONE World Series win to show for it? The Marlins have more Series wins than you!)
Somebody asked me the other day if I thought the Phillies needed to read "Harry Kalas Saved My Life!" I thought it was nice of them to say that but why would they read it?
Then I realized maybe it would be a good idea. From what I understand these are great guys on this team. No jerks, no prima donnas. But they are all well paid stars. And maybe somehow they just forgot what it means to sit in the stands after a crappy day at a job you hate and watch your team in your ballpark and really need a win.
Maybe they lost sight of who they play for. Not "the city" but the individuals who make up the 47000 in the seats each night. The dads who are taking their son or daughter to the ballpark for the first time, or the son or daughter sitting there without their dad for the first time, and missing him like crazy.
The man who never got the chance to go to a game when he was a kid...who is now getting to be a kid again at the ballgame.
Or the guy like me who lost everything, misses his home and his hometown, and who loves this team because it's all he has left to count on for some hope and some pride in a world that has spun crazily out of control.
In the ballpark there isn't any unemployment, no broken down Volvo with too many miles to count anymore, no oil destroying a natural resource like the Gulf, no war and no doubts and fears about tomorrow.
In the ballyard there is green grass...like it's always been...and white chalk lines and blue skies that fade to glorious sunsets under the lights. Hot dogs taste better, peanuts are saltier, and red pinstripes look better than your wedding tux did on the best day of your life.
Those men out there who do that thing we dreamed about throughout our whole childhood...they are messengers of hope. Every at bat might be the one that brings a memory. Every windup the moment we never forget. The potential exists in every single game of every single season that this night will be something I talk about with my child when I am an old man.
These days I need that. I need to walk into the ballpark and be hopeful and get my mind off of this train of worry and concern I am lugging like a locomotive.
I would tell the players "You give me hope...every one of you, every single day. I need you to win. It's not just a game and you're not just some team...you are my team. I was never good enough to walk out there but you are. You do it for me every night. Think of me once in a while, as you get ready to play this game. Think of me and all those people who fell asleep at night, as little boys, dreaming of being you. Like some kid is going to do tonight. I know you love the game and I know you work hard. Work a little harder...for me. My life hasn't been easy, especially lately and I need to walk out of this ballpark tonight with my head held high and my chest puffed out just a bit and a win under my belt. I know you care and I know you want to win. Once in a while, remember me and all the folks like me...and want it just a little more."
It was a great win but they just haven't been playing well for over a month now and it's been wearing on the fanbase and probably on the team.
We expected them to run away with the division and instead they are 5 games out behind the Braves...the most undeserving team in the history of baseball. (14 Division titles and ONE World Series win to show for it? The Marlins have more Series wins than you!)
Somebody asked me the other day if I thought the Phillies needed to read "Harry Kalas Saved My Life!" I thought it was nice of them to say that but why would they read it?
Then I realized maybe it would be a good idea. From what I understand these are great guys on this team. No jerks, no prima donnas. But they are all well paid stars. And maybe somehow they just forgot what it means to sit in the stands after a crappy day at a job you hate and watch your team in your ballpark and really need a win.
Maybe they lost sight of who they play for. Not "the city" but the individuals who make up the 47000 in the seats each night. The dads who are taking their son or daughter to the ballpark for the first time, or the son or daughter sitting there without their dad for the first time, and missing him like crazy.
The man who never got the chance to go to a game when he was a kid...who is now getting to be a kid again at the ballgame.
Or the guy like me who lost everything, misses his home and his hometown, and who loves this team because it's all he has left to count on for some hope and some pride in a world that has spun crazily out of control.
In the ballpark there isn't any unemployment, no broken down Volvo with too many miles to count anymore, no oil destroying a natural resource like the Gulf, no war and no doubts and fears about tomorrow.
In the ballyard there is green grass...like it's always been...and white chalk lines and blue skies that fade to glorious sunsets under the lights. Hot dogs taste better, peanuts are saltier, and red pinstripes look better than your wedding tux did on the best day of your life.
Those men out there who do that thing we dreamed about throughout our whole childhood...they are messengers of hope. Every at bat might be the one that brings a memory. Every windup the moment we never forget. The potential exists in every single game of every single season that this night will be something I talk about with my child when I am an old man.
These days I need that. I need to walk into the ballpark and be hopeful and get my mind off of this train of worry and concern I am lugging like a locomotive.
I would tell the players "You give me hope...every one of you, every single day. I need you to win. It's not just a game and you're not just some team...you are my team. I was never good enough to walk out there but you are. You do it for me every night. Think of me once in a while, as you get ready to play this game. Think of me and all those people who fell asleep at night, as little boys, dreaming of being you. Like some kid is going to do tonight. I know you love the game and I know you work hard. Work a little harder...for me. My life hasn't been easy, especially lately and I need to walk out of this ballpark tonight with my head held high and my chest puffed out just a bit and a win under my belt. I know you care and I know you want to win. Once in a while, remember me and all the folks like me...and want it just a little more."
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Never Far From Home...
I've wandered...I've roamed. I've lived in 4 cities including college and I've always found myself back where I belong...Home.
My book (Harry Kalas Saved My Life) is about that journey and what home really means...especially when you hit hard times and really need your home.
My home is like no other. We're a different breed, we Philadelphian's and while we get a bad rap around the country for Santa's a snowballs, we are fiercely loyal to those we love...and for one of our own.
Which is why, regardless of how well received my book has been everywhere else in the country, it is my hometown that has been the most thunderous in it's applause and open with it's heart. And it's why I truly can say "There's No Place Like Home". I wish I had never left here and I wish every day I could return. Because Nashville is a bad place? No! Nashville is a great town. But it's not home. When your wheels have come off and your life is in the spin cycle and you can't tell up from down, what you need is home.
This has been a remarkable ride since April 12th when I did my first interview and this all began. I have talked to so many great people in the last 2 months but when I got here and did Angelo Cataldi's show and then Ukee Washington on CW3 and then last week when the legendary Stan Hochman wrote a review that landed my book on the front page of the Philadelphia Daily News...dreams do come true even if they have their genesis in a nightmare.
I read Stan's article today and I was in tears. I cry a lot when I think of what I've lost and what I've learned in that process. Sometimes I can still feel the cold of that car and the hopeless feeling that would have had me believeing I would never escape my situation.
I would never want to go back to that period but I wouldn't change it if I could. I am a better man than I was and I have become the man I was put here to be, doing the job I was meant to do. That is priceless.
Along the way the immeasurable blessing of becoming friends with legends has been bestowed on me. To have spoken face to face with Stan Hochman, Angelo Cataldi, (my friend of 15 years who graciously wrote my foreword) Paul Ladd who has a love for "old school" journalism like few men his age, Michael Barkann who delivered the awful news about Harry's passing that fateful afternoon in April of 2009 through tears of his own and with a voice that fought him just to choke out the words, has been a dream. To meet up-and-coming stars like Brandon Kamin and to renew an acquaintance with "The Prof" Glen Macnow, to sit on a TV set with Ukee Washington and sing songs in a dressing room with Skip Denenberg. I was interviewed by Ron Barr and had lunch with Pete Weber. To finally meet Vince Papale and swap books with him and to count Tony Luke Jr. amongst my friends is a blessing in the truest sense.
I know full well that all I have lost in my recent situation will be...and is being...replaced by something better, deeper, and more meaningful.
Almost all of it is coming from the streets and scenes and familiar feeling of my hometown. When you are miles away it sings to you and gives you a smile. When you are lost it shines a light that gets you where you really need to be. When you are there...you feel like you never want to leave again.
Home truly is where your heart is, and for me...it's the place I was born.
Everything is possible...with High Hopes!
My book (Harry Kalas Saved My Life) is about that journey and what home really means...especially when you hit hard times and really need your home.
My home is like no other. We're a different breed, we Philadelphian's and while we get a bad rap around the country for Santa's a snowballs, we are fiercely loyal to those we love...and for one of our own.
Which is why, regardless of how well received my book has been everywhere else in the country, it is my hometown that has been the most thunderous in it's applause and open with it's heart. And it's why I truly can say "There's No Place Like Home". I wish I had never left here and I wish every day I could return. Because Nashville is a bad place? No! Nashville is a great town. But it's not home. When your wheels have come off and your life is in the spin cycle and you can't tell up from down, what you need is home.
This has been a remarkable ride since April 12th when I did my first interview and this all began. I have talked to so many great people in the last 2 months but when I got here and did Angelo Cataldi's show and then Ukee Washington on CW3 and then last week when the legendary Stan Hochman wrote a review that landed my book on the front page of the Philadelphia Daily News...dreams do come true even if they have their genesis in a nightmare.
I read Stan's article today and I was in tears. I cry a lot when I think of what I've lost and what I've learned in that process. Sometimes I can still feel the cold of that car and the hopeless feeling that would have had me believeing I would never escape my situation.
I would never want to go back to that period but I wouldn't change it if I could. I am a better man than I was and I have become the man I was put here to be, doing the job I was meant to do. That is priceless.
Along the way the immeasurable blessing of becoming friends with legends has been bestowed on me. To have spoken face to face with Stan Hochman, Angelo Cataldi, (my friend of 15 years who graciously wrote my foreword) Paul Ladd who has a love for "old school" journalism like few men his age, Michael Barkann who delivered the awful news about Harry's passing that fateful afternoon in April of 2009 through tears of his own and with a voice that fought him just to choke out the words, has been a dream. To meet up-and-coming stars like Brandon Kamin and to renew an acquaintance with "The Prof" Glen Macnow, to sit on a TV set with Ukee Washington and sing songs in a dressing room with Skip Denenberg. I was interviewed by Ron Barr and had lunch with Pete Weber. To finally meet Vince Papale and swap books with him and to count Tony Luke Jr. amongst my friends is a blessing in the truest sense.
I know full well that all I have lost in my recent situation will be...and is being...replaced by something better, deeper, and more meaningful.
Almost all of it is coming from the streets and scenes and familiar feeling of my hometown. When you are miles away it sings to you and gives you a smile. When you are lost it shines a light that gets you where you really need to be. When you are there...you feel like you never want to leave again.
Home truly is where your heart is, and for me...it's the place I was born.
Everything is possible...with High Hopes!
Philadelphia Daily News legendary author Stan Hochman reviews HKSML
www.philly.com/stanhochman
It was a THRILL of a lifetime to be interviewed by a legend like Mr. Hochman.
I spent 2 hours at his home with his darling wife Gloria. I read his articles at the breakfast table when I was a boy...I can't describe the honor it was when he asked to interview me.
Let him know you appreciated the article!
Craig
It was a THRILL of a lifetime to be interviewed by a legend like Mr. Hochman.
I spent 2 hours at his home with his darling wife Gloria. I read his articles at the breakfast table when I was a boy...I can't describe the honor it was when he asked to interview me.
Let him know you appreciated the article!
Craig
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