On baseball and travel, journalist, prolific author, and broadcaster Dan Schlossberg is without question an expert. To his name belong thirty-eight books about America’s pastime. An avid globetrotter he co-founded a trade association and started a theme cruise.
Of every Major League player you’ve seen, past and present, who are your favorites?
Favorite players from the past are Warren Spahn, the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time (no other lefty won more than his 363 wins but he also had 363 base-hits), and Hank Aaron, the most underrated player of all time before he broke Babe Ruth‘s homerun record. Aaron never hit more than 47 homeruns in a season but was consistent; also the only man to be an All-Star 25 times. To me, he was the greatest player in National League history, overcoming a barrage a racial hatred as he approached the record but maintaining his cool. He was a 30-30 man, a Gold Glove winner, a batting champion, and an MVP. He is still the career RBI leader.
Favorite players from the present would be the three Hall of Fame pitchers who spent a decade in the same rotation (an unprecedented feat): Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz. I know all three personally and really like Glavine, who is outgoing, friendly, communicative, and cooperative, not to mention polite.
Current favorite player: none. I am a Braves fan and they are a bad team at the moment.
Due to extended rotations, bullpen specialists, debilitating ailments, managerial limitations, the three-hundred-win pitcher is effectively extinct. Borrowing from your aptly titled bestseller, have we seen the last?
Five or even six-man rotations, pitch counts, overemphasis on bullpens mean fewer 20-game winners and therefore fewer 300-game winners. It takes 15 20-win seasons or 20 15-win seasons to win 300. Plus pitchers make so much money now they retire earlier and don’t hang on like Don Sutton did.
As a broadcaster with a “trained radio voice” you “keep audiences alert and responsive.” There is an art to audio entertainment, right?
There is indeed an art to keeping your audience. Broadcasters need to be both entertaining and educational, which means being knowledgeable about the game, including its history. Having a good voice and confident manner really helps. Most players make bad broadcasters with precious few exceptions (like John Smoltz – so glad he has replaced the awful Harold Reynolds on FOX). Don’t like Tim McCarver or John Kruk either.
Your volume When the Braves Ruled the Diamond pays homage to the Atlanta team. A native of New Jersey, when did you migrate south allegiance-wise?
In 1957, the Dodgers and Giants were leaving NY for California and all my friends rooted for the Yankees. But the Milwaukee Braves beat them in the World Series so I figured they were the best team.
For his franchise’s turnaround how much glory does Ted Turner deserve?
He stuck with the team even when it was the Bad News Braves, putting money into player development and letting Bobby Cox and then John Schuerholz build the ball club as general managers.
Traveling isn’t merely an activity but a serious fascination for you. Is there a foreign or domestic trek that catapulted your editorial career?
I was not aware of travel writing until I got a job with Motor Club of America (MCA) after two years at the Associated Press (AP). MCA had a travel agency and wanted to promote it through its external publication, which I edited. I met travel magazine and newspaper editors and started getting freelance work (and trips).
You have traversed the seas with many of baseball’s legends. What inspired these theme cruises?
I created the baseball theme cruise concept in 1981 when Alice Marshall, Cunard publicist, asked me if I could combine my loves of baseball and travel for the QE2. I have done more than two-dozen since.
Biography
- DanSchlossberg.net personal website
- Baseball Guru profile
- Latino Sports blog
- Host, Travel Itch Radio
- Twitter feed @braves1
Books (partial)
- The 300 Club: Have We Seen the Last of Baseball’s 300-Game Winners?
- When the Braves Ruled the Diamond: Fourteen Flags over Atlanta
- Miracle Over Miami: How the 2003 Marlins Shocked the World
- The New Baseball Catalog
- Baseball Bits: Little-Known Stories, Facts, and Trivia from the Dugout to the Outfield
- Baseball Gold: Mining Nuggets from Our National Pastime
- PITCHING: Step-by-step instructions and sound advice about pitching mechanics, strategy and conditioning
- Called Out but Safe: A Baseball Umpire’s Journey
- Designated Hebrew: The Ron Blomberg Story
- Making Airwaves: 60 Years at Milo’s Microphone
Dan Schlossberg – former AP newsman, broadcaster, and travel writer – is author of thirty-eight (38!) baseball books.
Cannot get enough of America’s pastime? Read our in-depth Q&A with bestselling sports author Peter Golenbock.