Home Runs: Tales of Tonks, Taters, Contests and Derbies

With home run derbies ascending to prominence during the 2021 baseball season, the sport’s most celebrated competition takes center stage in Home Runs: Tales of Tonks, Taters, Contests and Derbies. Home Runs begins with the story of the most famous home run derby competition—TV’s Home Run Derby—and focuses on memorable derbies and competitions through the years. 

Home Runs: Tales of Tonks, Taters, Contests and Derbies focuses on three big stories:

• The creation of the lodestone of all derbies: television’s Home Run Derby, where legends like Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Duke Snider, Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killebrew, and Ernie Banks competed in a head-to-head competition.
• The first full accounting of a post-1961 North Carolina derby tour by Roger Maris (New York Yankees), Harmon Killebrew (Minnesota Twins), and Jim Gentile (Baltimore Orioles). Arranged by Wilson Tobs owner Matt Boykin, the tour hit Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilson, and Durham, with the three sluggers competing on the field and acting as ambassadors for the game off the field. Sharing their memories of the tour: Gentile and Jack McKeon, the manager of the Tobs in 1961 who pitched to the three participants. The chapter is highlighted by previously unpublished photos of the competition.
• The evolution of MLB’s Home Run Derby, held in conjunction with the annual All-Star Game. While with the San Diego Padres, Strasberg had an inside view of how the event was created and evolved, beginning with the 1978 All-Star Game Workout (a precursor of sorts to the Home Run Derby), running through several Padres Old Timers games featuring notable derbies (including a memorable 1980 event with former teammates Henry Aaron and Warren Spahn) and culminating with the 1992 Home Run Derby, won by Mark McGwire in convincing fashion.

Andy Strasberg is author of the best-selling My 1961, his memoir/history of Roger Maris’s record-setting 1961 season and what it meant to a certain 13-year-old fan originally hailing from The Bronx. His working in and writing about the profession of baseball includes 22 years in marketing with the San Diego Padres and 18 years representing high-profile players, as well as consulting for Major League Baseball teams and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Format: Softcover (5.5 x 8.5)
Pages: 136
Copyright Date: 2023
Print ISBN: 978-1-938532-75-7
EBook ISBN: 978-1-938532-76-4

This title is also available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions.

Bookstores and retailers: This book is available for bulk purchases from Ingram.