Clearing The Bases - Issue 045

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Hello and welcome to Issue 045 of Clearing The Bases, an email newsletter in conjunction with the My Baseball History podcast hosted by Dan Wallach.

I know I’ve been talking about this release a lot, but I just wanted to give an update to everyone who has ordered their copies of “Nancy Faust At The Game” on CD so far. All orders that have been placed as of the writing of this email have already been shipped. Many people have received their orders, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Our friend Russell Iverson got his copy last week and emailed to tell us about it:

I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for coordinating the re-release of Nancy Faust’s iconic organ music from Comiskey Park and Chicago Stadium. The sound quality is absolutely incredible — every track sounds so vibrant. It’s almost like being back at the ballpark!

For years, I searched for this album on eBay with no luck, so finally being able to hear it in such fantastic quality means the world to me. Your efforts in preserving and sharing this piece of Chicago sports history are truly appreciated. Thanks again for making this possible. It’s brought back so many great memories!

That kind of feedback is exactly what Nancy and I have been dreaming of over the past year as we secretly worked together on this release. Our friend Dave Eck at Lucky Lacquers remastered the audio from the original 1978 vinyl release, which is why everything sounds so good. We can’t thank him enough for the way this turned out.

Is Russell’s ringing endorsement not enough for you? How about THIS, from Braves organist Matthew Kaminski?

It feels so good to finally have you all see and hear and hold this release after so much work behind the scenes. If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, head over to the Artistic Integrity Records Bandcamp page (by clicking HERE) and order yours today. If you bought an autographed copy, make sure you check the back of the CD cover, since that is where Nancy signed all of them. You can see Nancy’s signature on Matthew’s copy, shown above.

When yours is delivered, please post about it and tag us on social media. Once we hit 250 copies sold, everyone who has ordered up to that point will be entered into a contest to win a free vintage copy of a White Sox media guide, signed by Nancy, from one of the years she was the organist for the team.

Earlier this month, we had our first-ever LIVE podcast at Cleveland’s historic League Park. A couple of days later, one of the panelists from that talk was the guest at another event, this one hosted by the Cleveland Public Library at their main branch. “Beyond the Diamond: Larry Lester on the Negro Leagues and Cleveland’s Legacy” was a really interesting discussion hosted by Ethan Sands. The pair discussed a wide range of topics, but a lot of attention was paid to two of Larry’s books. The first – The Negro Leagues Book – was originally published in 1994 and is a concise Negro Leagues history book. It includes a player register with hundreds of player records, over 100 years of team rosters, historic photos, anecdotes, stories, and tales of amazing feats.

The second – Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933 to 1962 – was originally published in 2001 and brings together for the first time the painstakingly assembled history of the Negro League All-Star Games played over the course of three decades, reconstructed play-by-plays, and accurate statistical records. If you don’t know anything about the Negro Leagues and you had to pick one book to start with, this would be my recommendation. It has all sorts of familiar names, of course, but you’ll also hear about dozens of other great players whose names aren’t as familiar to the average baseball fan. Not only that, you’ll learn how the East-West Game was one of the biggest Black social events of the year, and Black celebrities and entertainers, from musicians to actors to comedians to athletes from other sports, all wanted to see and be seen at these games. It was a privilege to be able to see Larry Lester speak twice in one week, and an honor to be the one asking the questions for one of those nights.

Something else pretty special happened outside League Park earlier this month, as well. I ran into local artist Tim Herron, who has been painting the original ticket house, which was built in 1909. Tim’s been hard at work over more than a dozen sessions. It was amazing to watch him paint for a little, and hear his stories about all of the places he’s painted in and around Cleveland over the years. Please check out some of his other work HERE.

One final thing I saw this month was a talk by my buddy Andrew Jenkins on collecting game-used jerseys. He’s been collecting for decades, and he brought 25 unique gamers from throughout Cleveland Indians history to League Park for the best version of Show & Tell I’ve seen in years. From a 1945 road uniform, to a 1953 Spring Training uniform with a triple-digit number on the back, and even a 1970 white home pinstripe uniform with 3D lettering. Andrew’s collection is incredible, and to hear him talk about it with such passion and enthusiasm was a real treat.

We’re just about 7 weeks away from Season 5 starting, so mark your calendars for Wednesday, October 8^th, when we get back into the swing of things and start releasing one new episode on the second Wednesday of every month until June. If there are old episodes you need to catch up on before the new season starts, be sure to head to ShoelessPodcast.com and go through everything from Seasons 1 through 4. There’s something for everyone.

Don’t forget, it’s a huge help when you Rate and Review the podcast on whatever platform you choose to listen. 5-Star ratings help our podcast get shown on more people’s suggested podcast pages, which means more people will hear our show. It just takes a couple of seconds of your time, but it really helps us a lot. And of course, liking us on social media, interacting with our posts, and sharing things with your friends is great, too. Feel free to forward this email to anyone in your life who loves baseball, and hopefully, they’ll enjoy the podcast and learn a thing or two. But no matter how you choose to support us, even if it’s just by listening, we appreciate you being here.

Until next time, I’m Dan Wallach, and this is My Baseball History.