Jane Heller

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

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Confessions of a She-Fan

My Yankees-centric musings about baseball – the spawn of my Confessions of a She-Fan book, which is now a screenplay too.

Is the 2020 Season in Peril?

July 27, 2020

Now that 11 Marlins players and 2 coaches have tested positive for the Coronavirus while they were using the visitor’s facilities to play the Phillies — and the Yankees-Phillies game for tonight has been canceled — I worry that this incident will put the season in jeopardy. Players may decide it’s not worth risking their health. Owners may decide not to assume liability for players and other personnel who get sick. And MLB may decide the whole gambit won’t work.

I loved seeing the Yankees play again. It didn’t bother me at all that there weren’t crowds in the stands, and I thought that FOX, in particular, did a great job syncing up the crowd noise. But now reality has hit me. I live in Florida, a major hotspot for the virus, so I’m very careful to follow protocols and guidelines and not take any chances with my health. Baseball was supposed to be a wonderful escape from an otherwise dreary summer. I really hope the powers that be can find a way to test more and better and keep the players safe, and that the season will resume.

We need baseball. More than ever.

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: Coronavirus, Marlins, Phillies, Yankees

Yankees Win — and This Blog Came Out of Hiding!

July 24, 2020

It’s been a very long time since I posted here, but last night’s long-awaited 2020 season opener against the Nats was such a welcome escape from the current woes. I live in Florida, where the number of Covid cases and deaths has surged, so watching the game last night was a thrill.

Fauci’s errant ceremonial first pitch notwithstanding (hey, the guy is really busy right now and hasn’t had time to practice; he’s still my hero), the united front of the Yanks, kneeling to honor BLM, was so moving I hardly missed the fans in the stands.

Cole was terrific, and Judge, Stanton, Wade and company were stellar against the tough Scherzer. Too bad about the rain, but I was just grateful they got most of the game in, given the forecast.

Only question: why is Brett Gardner betting 5th?

OK, another question: aren’t they supposed to avoid high-fiving and spitting? I saw them do both.

Play ball!

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, Nats, Opening Night, Tyler Wade, Yankees

He’s Ours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

December 11, 2019

I knew we’d sign him. I just knew it. And now I’m so happy I’m dancing in the streets.

Is $324 million an insane amount of money? Check.

Is nine years an eternity for a contract? Check.

But it’s not my money and the Yankees save some by letting Didi go to the Phillies, plus they’ll shed some cash if they can trade Happ.

As for the nine years, Cole is young with a healthy history, and I’m not worrying about his arm. They’re all possible injury candidates. Can’t obsess about that.

I’ve also heard people say he’ll have trouble adjusting to New York – the fans, the media, the big show. That’s why Cashman brought Pettitte along to woo him last week; Andy knows what it’s like to thrive in pinstripes. And Cole has been a Yankee fan his whole life.

This is sooooooooo exciting!

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: free agent, Gerrit Cole, record breaking signing, Yankees

A Cruel, Cruel Way to End the Season

October 20, 2019

It  was past my bedtime, but there was no way I was going to sleep. The Yankees had just tied it up in the top of the ninth, thanks to the miraculous DJ LeMahieu. Then came Chapman, always a high-wire act. Did he have to challenge Altuve with a base open and a relatively weak hitter coming up? Boone said that challenging hitters is what Chapman does. Great. We lost. We didn’t get a chance to bat in the top of the 10th. We didn’t get a shot at a Game 7. We didn’t win a championship after all – the first time in a decade the Yankees didn’t accomplish that feat.

Were we the underdogs against the Astros coming into this series? Absolutely, given their elite pitching staff. But we battled, sort of. There were too many strikeouts, too many runners left on base, not enough hit and run, small ball, too many swings for the fences.

There were also two glaring holes in the lineup. Encarnacion, who came off the IL and was so hot in the Twins series, was about as lost at the plate as I’ve ever seen a batter. One K after another. Just awful. I would have used Maybin as DH in last night’s game – anybody but Edwin because he had clearly gone into a terrible slump. The other hole was Stanton, who seems to be the new Ellsbury: a highly paid player who has too many injuries to earn his money and contribute to the team. The Yankees won the two games in which Stanton was in the lineup. Even at 60% healthy, his presence was important, but he was deemed too injured to bat? With the season on the line?

But there will be many months of what ifs, not the least of which is why the Yankees didn’t try to get Gerrit Cole when he was available. Will they let Didi walk as a free agent in the off-season and go after a front-line pitcher, including Cole? Who knows.

I wish those who still read the blog a happy and healthy winter. One thing is for sure: there will be more baseball in our future. Go Yanks.

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: ALCS, Aroldis Chapman, Astros, Jose Altuve, Yankees

My Latest Video: It Worked Like a Charm Last Night!

October 13, 2019

Since it’s almost Halloween, this time my Yankees vid has a scary theme. I posted it on Facebook yesterday and the Yanks went on to beat Houston last night, so I’m posting it here. May it bring our boys more luck and us more joy. Be sure to watch after the “credits” for one last scary shot.

Enjoy!

Yankees Haunt Minute Maid Park – HD 720p

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: ALCDS, Astros, Gleyber Torres, Masahiro Tanaka, Minute Maid Park, Yankees

AlDS Sweep: Check!

October 8, 2019

With the chatter about the “New Twins” and the “Bomb Squad” and all the other nicknames for the current Minnesota team with their impressive homers and young players (plus Nelson Cruz), I didn’t think history would repeat itself and the Yankees would dominate the ALDS.

Clearly, I was wrong. The Yankees were stupendous in every way – pitching, offense, defense and all-around focus.

I was thrilled to see Didi break out of his slump. I was thrilled to see Gleybar establish himself as a postseason star. I was thrilled to see Judge provide not only the big bat but also use his full size to make catches others only dream about. I was thrilled (after getting over my surprise) to see Gardner succeed batting third in the lineup with his pesky at bats. I was thrilled to see Paxton and Tanaka have such great starts. I was thrilled to see Severino battle out of jams. And on and on.

Do I wish Stanton would get hot? Sure, but at least he got on base several times. Do I wish Sanchez would start hitting bombs? Yes, but he’s had a strange year, And it’s only a matter of time before my new favorite, Eddie Encarnacion, walks the parrot the way he’s been swinging lately.

As a St. Pete resident, I’ve been watching the Rays-Houston series too, and I have to admit that the Astros are scarier than ever, which is why I was mildly heartened that the Rays found a way to pummel them yesterday. I assume – hopefully, I’m wrong – that the Astros will prevail in that series and we’ll be stuck facing Verlander and Cole, not to mention Greinke. But who knows.

In the meantime, I’ll revel in the Yankees being the 2019 ALDS champs and hope they spend the rest of the week working hard, staying sharp and getting ready for anything and anyone.

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: Didi Gregorius, Gleybar Torres, Houston Astros, Tampa Rays, Twins, Yankees win 2019 ALDS

Nice Interview!

October 1, 2019

As a relatively new resident of St. Petersburg (FL), I’m learning not only about the great baseball culture here but also about my fellow local writers and their love for baseball.

Here’s an interview that’s running in the latest issue of Creative Pinellas’s Arts Coast Journal, Pinellas County being home to St. Pete.

October 1, 2019 | By Margo Hammond

Writing About Baseball:
A He-Fan and She-Fan Face Off

. . .

St. Petersburg has had a long love affair with baseball — and so have its writers.

Since 1914 more Major League spring training games have been played in this city than in any other. From the St. Louis Browns to the Tampa Bay Rays, St. Petersburg has hosted nine teams. When Babe Ruth arrived in 1925 for spring training, half the town and a marching band came out to greet him (Ruth’s winter estate — a 7,381-foot mansion — recently went up for sale for $2.1 million).

In 2004 Ruth appeared as a memorable secondary character in Eckerd College history professor Lee Irby’s rollicking novel 7,000 Clams about a bootlegger and an IOU for $7,000 signed by the Babe. Baseball has loomed even larger in the works of St. Petersburg writers Rick Wilber, Jane Heller and Peter Golenbock who collectively have written scores of novels, memoirs, biographies, histories and short stories with a baseball theme.

                                             *                   *                  *

Every October as the baseball playoffs begin and I hear the announcers’ play-by-plays, I am transported back to a living room in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It is October 1962. My father is sprawled on an overstuffed green chair, peering at an RCA set with an impossibly small screen. Jack Brickhouse is yelling ‘Hey-Hey, Hey-Hey. The Cubs are winning.’

Of course, that never happened. In 1962 the Cubs lost a record-shattering 103 games. They never made the playoffs — they ended the season a whopping 42 1/2 games behind the National League winner, the San Francisco Giants who went on to lose the World Series to the New York Yankees. But in my reveries the Cubs are winners.

Baseball, time travel and altered history are things Rick Wilber understands well. A science fiction and fantasy writer, Wilber frequently goes back in time to write alternative history stories about Moe Berg, a baseball player who in real life was a spy. Four are collected in The Moe Berg Episodes.

Rick Wilber

Many have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, including “The Wandering Warriors,” a 30,000-word tale co-authored with Alan Smale, an Oxford-educated astrophysicist. Originally a cover story in Asimov and soon to be published as a novella, it features a retired Moe Berg traveling  back to ancient Rome to teach the Romans the game of baseball.

According to Wilber, on some ancient murals the Romans can be seen playing a game with a small ball. “So who knows? Perhaps Moe Berg did time travel.”

One of Wilber’s most unusual Moe Berg stories is a political satire that appears in the anthology Alternative Peace. The editors solicited stories that alter history in ways that make the world a better place. In Wilber’s story, called “Donny Boy,” Berg helps a a little boy catch Bobby Thompson’s ball in his game-winning home run in 1951.

That home run, known in baseball lore as The Shot Heard Round the World, so inspires little Donny Trump that instead of becoming President of the United States, he winds up as the much-reviled owner of the Mets.

Rich and Rick Wilber at Tropicana Field

“I was never a Mets fan,” admits Wilber. He grew up in St. Louis where his father, Del Wilber, played for the Cardinals. Later Del Wilber played backup catcher for the Red Sox. “When the Rays aren’t playing, I don’t find it hard to cheer on the Cardinals and the Red Sox.”

Wilber now, however, is a Rays fan, cheering them on regularly at Tropicana Field with his son, Richard Jr. “I take such a fatherly joy in taking my Down Syndrome son to the games. He eats a bad pizza. I eat a hot dog. He really knows his baseball. People are always coming up to him asking him questions and high-fiving him.” His son doesn’t like to stay for the whole game. “During the 7th inning stretch, we sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game” with lots of gusto together and then we leave. I rarely see the Rays for the 8th and 9th innings.”

Rick Wilber and his father, Del, when Del was the manager of the Triple-A Charleston Senators minor-league team in 1960. Rick Wilber was the batboy for that team.

Wilber’s work-in-progress again stars Moe Berg, a novel about racism called Alternating Currents. “All the Moe Berg stories are about his fight against racism — and we’re flirting with it again.”

Not all of Wilber’s baseball projects, however, have featured Berg. His first baseball story, called “The Kids in Question,” was published in 1988 in Spitball, a literary magazine devoted entirely to baseball. In 2009 his novel Rum Point was subtitled ‘A Baseball Novel.’ “One reviewer complained that it was too much murder mystery and not enough baseball,” says Wilber.

His father inspired one of Wilber’s novel (Where Garagiola Waits) and a memoir (My Father’s Game). When his father was dying, Wilber became his primary caretaker and remaining fan base. To engage his dad, who had played after all for the Red Sox, he appealed to their mutual distaste for the Yankees. 

“My dad was in an assisted living facility,” says Wilber. “I knew if I walked into his room and asked him, ‘What about those damned Yankees,’ he would be happy to talk about how much he hated the Yankees.”

                                  *                                    *                           *

Jane Heller, who only recently moved to St. Petersburg, has held fast as a New York Yankees fan.

“No matter what else this day brings, the Yankees swept the Rays yesterday and I’m basking in the afterglow. (Sorry, Peter Golenbock).”

That was Heller recently punking her friend and fellow New York Times bestselling author Peter Golenbock on Facebook.

Both are New York natives. Golenbock came to St. Petersburg in 1989. Heller is a more recent transplant — a move she credits to Golenbock.   

Golenbock, who has taught courses on the influence of sports on American history, is a prolific writer, not only on baseball. But six of his 10 New York Times bestsellers have been about the boys of summer: Dynasty: The New York Yankees 1949-1964, The Bronx Zoo (with Sparky Lyle), Number 1 (with Billy Martin), Balls (with Graig Nettles), Idiot (with Johnny Damon) and House of Nails (with Lenny Dykstra).

He has also written about the Brooklyn Dodgers (Bums), the Boston Red Sox (Fenway), the Chicago Cubs (Wrigleyville) and the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns (The Spirit of St. Louis); a biography of George Steinbrenner and another of Billy Martin (which The New York Time said “reads like a Russian novel”), a novel about Mickey Mantle (7: The Mickey Mantle Novel), two children’s books (Teammates about Jackie Robinson’s first season as a Brooklyn Dodger and Brave in Every Way about Hank Aaron’s ordeal in breaking Babe Ruth’s career home run record), and a book about former major league ballplayers in the Senior Professional Baseball League.

Heller, on the other hand, has only written one book about baseball — from a fan’s point of view. She is best known for romantic comedies with such witty titles as Infernal Affairsand An Ex to Grind (14 of them have made the New York Times and U.S.A. Today bestseller lists, nine of them have been optioned for film or television).

Her latest book also has a clever title: You’d Better Not Die Or I’ll Kill You: A Caregiver’s Survival Guide to Keeping You in Good Health and Good Spirits. It’s a guide to caring for loved ones with a chronic or progressive illness. Heller’s husband has Crohn’s disease. Her mother, whom she cared for until her death, had dementia.

But her first non-fiction book — Confessions of a She-Fan: The Course of True Love with the New York Yankees — is a spirited tale about chasing after the boys of summer. It chronicles the season she and husband Michael took to the road to attend (nearly) every Yankees game. The book spawned a blog at janeheller.com — called, of course, Confessions of a She-Fan — and a screenplay.

                                          

Q&A with Jane Heller and Peter Golenbock

. . . 

I sent the New York Yankee-loving Jane and loyal-to-the Rays Peter — frenemies at the stadium but friends everywhere else — a list of the same questions to see if there was a difference between a she-fan and a he-fan. Below are their responses.

They only agreed on one thing: Mickey Mantle.

    

Jane Heller wearing a Yankees rain poncho at a game at Yankee Stadium that lasted for five hours. It poured until the final inning when the sun came out and the Yankees won.

Is there a difference between a he-fan and a she-fan?

GOLENBOCK: There is no difference between a she-fan and a he-fan. One she-fan I know was crazy enough to follow the Yankees around for a whole season and write a very good book about it. 

HELLER: Women are different than men in the way we are fans. Female fans view the game from a more emotional perspective. We are just as knowledgeable about the game as men, but we are as fascinated by the interactions between the players as we are about the velocity on a pitcher’s fastball. Some of us wear pink caps and jerseys, while others of us think it is maddening that we are consigned to our own color.

What we all share is a passion for the game, for our team, for our guys. I see us in every city and ballpark and hotel lobby, cheering and hanging out and snapping photos. We are teenagers and twentysomethings, soccer moms and corporate executives, baby boomers and seniors. We are everywhere.

. . . 

Why does baseball inspire writers more than any other sport?

Peter Golenbock and Wendy Sears Grassi in Rays’ DJ Kitty onesies

GOLENBOCK: I was born with the baseball gene.  To me baseball is not a game. It is a religion.  There are many Bibles, including Ball Four by Jim Bouton, The Glory of Their Times by Larry Ritter, and The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn. 

Baseball has rituals, songs, Gods and saints.  My first sports memory was Willie Mays’ catch in the 1954 World Series of the Vic Wertz blast to centerfield at the Polo Grounds.  Mickey Mantle and Jackie Robinson have been important religious icons in my life.  Baseball is, in fact, the kindest of all the religions. 

HELLER: Watching a baseball game is like reading a novel. There’s a beginning, a middle and an end. What purists also love is that there’s no time clock in baseball — a game lasts as long as it lasts until its conclusion. There are heroes and villains. There’s conflict, drama, a twist here, a turn there. The resolution is always a surprise.

Some players are, as in a good novel, characters you come to care about because of their personality traits and because they look like men who could actually exist in the everyday world, neither towering titans like pro basketball players nor pumped-up superheroes like pro football players. When I settle in to watch a baseball game, I’m ready to begin a new story.

. . .

What is your favorite fictional book about baseball?

GOLENBOCK: My favorite fictional book about baseball is Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella.  My second favorite work of baseball fiction is The Natural. The third one is Bang the Drum Slowly.

HELLER: The easy answer would be Bernard Malamud’s The Natural because it was the first baseball novel I ever read and it’s taken on almost mythical proportions over the years thanks to the movie version starring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs.

But my favorite novel – the one I enjoyed the most – is The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. The story’s college baseball star, Henry Skrimshander, is a gifted shortstop, a prodigy destined for the major leagues, who suddenly, inexplicably, loses the ability to throw to first base. As a result, his life and the lives of those around him are upended. Not only did I find the writing engaging, but I felt drawn to Henry and the idea that someone could, seemingly out of the blue, lose his or her gift, and wondered how I would cope in that circumstance. The spell of the book hung over me for a long time.

. . .

What is your favorite non-fiction baseball book?

GOLENBOCK: The best book I have ever read, and I am reading it right now again, is Robert Caro’s stupendous biography of Robert Moses entitled The Power Broker.  The book that made the biggest impact on my life was The New York Yankees, by Frank Graham.  I read it (ten times) when I was 12 or 13. It was published in 1948. 

When I was working for Prentice-Hall in the summer of 1972, I walked into the office of the head editor of the trade book department and pitched a book idea to them. I told him I wanted to write the sequel to Graham’s Yankee book, which I wanted to call Dynasty. I talked my way into my first book contract.

HELLER: This one’s a tie. The first answer is Ball Four by Jim Bouton. The clubhouse antics Bouton described may seem tame by today’s standards, but in 1970 when the book was published, they were eye-opening. The book broke the cardinal rule in baseball: Never tell on your teammates. As a sophomore in college, I idolized my Yankees and Bouton exposed them as – shock and awe – a bunch of regular guys who do and say dumb and sometimes very funny things. I loved the book and I loved Bouton for having the guts to write it.

My second favorite is The Bronx Zoo, and I’m not just saying that because Peter Golenbock, who wrote the book with Yankees relief pitcher Sparky Lyle, is a friend. In the same way that Bouton ripped the lid off the closed clubhouse world of baseball, so did Lyle only in the most uproarious, truly memorable ways. The expression ‘You just can’t make this stuff up’ applies.

. . .

Which baseball park is your favorite?

Peter Golenbock’s Baseball and American Culture Class at Tropicana Field

GOLENBOCK: The old Yankee Stadium. As a teen I would ride the New Haven railroad from Stamford, Connecticut, to Grand Central Station and then I’d take the Lexington Avenue subway to the stadium. For $6 I could buy the best box seat in the house and then I would shmear the usher another $10 to sit in a box right near the dugout.  Today that same seat would cost $1,200.

HELLER: I should say Yankee Stadium, both the newer version and the place where I spent so much time from about age 10. But I love Camden Yards in Baltimore. It was one of the first ballparks – if not the first – to be built in the heart of a city’s downtown instead of out in the suburbs, and it was designed to resemble a charming old-time ballpark. There are better, newer versions now in other cities, as Camden is aging, but when I went on the She-Fan book tour, I looked forward to coming back to Camden Yards more than any other.

. . .

What foods do you eat when you are watching a baseball game?

GOLENBOCK: My favorite ballpark food is the hot dog. Currently as a season ticket holder, I can buy a hot dog for two dollars. I put on mustard, relish and more onions than most, and I go to town. But I will only eat one. They are very fattening.

HELLER: It’s sacrilegious, I know, but I don’t like hot dogs. At Yankee Stadium, I get a turkey sub. At Camden Yards, I go straight for the Boog’s Barbecue concession (Boog Powell was a Baltimore Orioles first baseman). Boog’s has the best barbecue, baked beans and coleslaw at any stadium. I’m salivating just thinking about it. At a Rays game recently, I tried the Impossible Burger. I’m all over the map, foodwise.

. . .

How does the experience of watching a baseball game change when you see it live rather than on TV?

GOLENBOCK: The difference between watching a game at the ballpark rather than on TV is the same as what it is like to sit in a cathedral rather than watch the service on TV. 

At the ballpark I am in a community with like-minded lovers of the game. At the game you can watch the announcers and reporters in the booth, the mascots on the field and players high-fiving each other, and as the game goes on you can communicate with all those sitting around you. 

At home you sit and watch and scream at the TV. It’s still fun, but it’s less of an experience. 

From the trailer for Jane Heller’s Confessions of a She-Fan book, with thanks to Photoshop

HELLER: There’s nothing like a crowd to energize a baseball fan. Experiencing a game with other people is a communal, social experience that can’t be matched when you’re sitting alone in front of the TV.

I feel the same way about going to the movie theater instead of streaming everything on Netflix. I love hearing my fellow fans cheering (or booing) – reacting, in any case. One of my favorite rituals at Yankee Stadium happens when the ‘bleacher creatures’ in the outfield chant the names of the Yankees players in a sing-song way just before the first pitch. ‘Der-ek Je-ter.’ The Yankees’ current star is Aaron Judge, and the bleacher creatures come decked out in old-fashioned long-white judge wigs.

I could do without the constant blaring of music from the speakers at all ballparks today – moments of silence are not the end of the world! – and I find the visual cues to clap demeaning. I think fans are too smart to be told when to clap.

. . .

Do you have any baseball rituals or superstitions?

GOLENBOCK: I have no rituals or superstitions.  I am a baseball atheist.

HELLER: I have many! Like the players, who are notoriously superstitious, fans have their nuttiness too. When the Yankees are in the playoffs, Michael and I will eat, say, pizza. If they win that game, we’ll have pizza for the next game, and so on. If they lose the first game, we’ll move on to club sandwiches. Which is another way of saying we have ‘lucky food.’ I’ll also wear the same jersey for each playoff game and change it only if the team loses – ‘lucky clothes.’

Superstitions are a fan’s way of attempting to control the outcome, since we’re just bystanders.

. . .

How did you end up in St. Petersburg?

Peter Golenbock

GOLENBOCK: I arrived in St. Petersburg the evening of October 31, 1989. I had driven from Ridgefield, Connecticut, to arrive in time for the first team meeting of the St. Petersburg Pelicans of the Senior Professional Baseball League. The league had eight teams, and I wanted to spend the season with one of them and write a book about the season. 

Earlier I had attended the organizational meeting in Palm Beach at The Breakers Hotel. Of the eight teams, I chose to spend the season with the West Palm Beach Tropics, managed by Dick Williams, the former A’s and Red Sox manager. But a day later I was told by the Tropics PR guy they didn’t want me because of the book I had written, Personal Fouls, that had gotten basketball coach Jim Valvano of NC State fired.  The PR guy was a friend of Valvano.

When I called league founder Jim Morley to ask what I should do next, he said, ‘I own the St. Pete Pelicans.  Spend the season with the Pelicans.’  I arrived the night of the 31st, driving down the Bayway, when I saw the Don Cesar Hotel as the sun was going down.

‘This is where I want to spend the rest of my life,’ I said to myself.

I have done that.  And I spent the season with the Pelicans, who won the only Senior League championship that year.  My book, The Forever Boys, is a chronicle of that season.

Jane Heller

HELLER: In May of 2007, I wrote a piece for the New York Times sports section in which I announced that I was divorcing the N.Y. Yankees on the grounds of mental cruelty — they were in last place in their division and breaking my heart.

As a diehard fan who’d watched every game, the players looked lethargic, error-prone, mediocre — especially compared to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (their name in 2007), whose players were young and frisky and eager. The article generated so much attention that it was the number-one emailed story the week it ran.

What stunned me was that while I had intended the piece to be humorous, making the case for how a devotion to a baseball team was similar to a romantic relationship, much of the feedback accused me of being a traitor, a turncoat, a bandwagon fan. The commotion caught the attention of an editor at Rodale, who offered me a book contract. The hook? I would hit the road after the All-Star break and go to every Yankees game in every city for the rest of the season in an attempt to discover what true fandom was. I loved the idea and regarded the book as my ‘Eat, Pray, Love Does Baseball.’

Over the next four-plus months, the Yankees traveled numerous times to St. Petersburg to play the Rays and my husband Michael, who joined me on the adventure, and I stayed at the Vinoy each time, because the team stayed there. We strolled around Beach Drive and the general downtown area and really liked what we saw.

When a sportswriter friend, the bestselling author and local, Peter Goldenbock, met us for coffee one afternoon, he extolled the virtues of the city and said, ‘If you like it now, wait until you see it ten years from now.’ Ten years went by. Michael and I were thinking of selling our house in Connecticut and moving to a warmer climate.

‘What about St. Pete?’ we said simultaneously. And here we are.

. . .

Have you ever switched your loyalty from one team to another?

HELLER: I’ve been very disappointed by the Yankees front office from time to time, whether it was because they tried to keep me at arm’s length while I was writing the She-Fan book or because they were among the last teams to have a Gay Pride night or because they traded away a favorite player. And though I was drawn to the Rays in 2007 when I wrote the article for The Times, I’ve never wavered in my loyalty to the Yanks.

Tropicana Field

The Rays are my ‘second team.’ I root for them if the Yankees aren’t in the mix.

GOLENBOCK: I was a New York Yankee fan all my life until moving to St. Petersburg.  The Devil Rays began play in 1998, and I have been a loyal Rays fan ever since. 

I do not understand the fans who have lived in Tampa Bay most of their lives but continue to root for their childhood teams. I figure that most of these people also cheat on their spouses. Because of them, we may lose our beloved team to another market, if you want to call Montreal a market.

“New Yankee Stadium: Great Hall” with Mickey Mantle banner by peterjr1961 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

. . .

Who is your favorite baseball player of all times?

GOLENBOCK: Mickey Mantle was and is my favorite baseball player. 

Since I was a little boy, Mickey Mantle was THE star of the Yankees.  He helped the Yankees win pennants in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964. When I interviewed him for Dynasty, he was humble and honest and I never forgot what he told me. 

My novel entitled 7 is the story of Mickey’s life the way he would have told it if he had had the balls to do so. When he died in 1995, it was as though a family member had died. 

HELLER: Easy one. Mickey Mantle AKA “The Mick.”

When I was growing up in a New York suburb, Mickey Mantle was the handsome young star of the team. I was madly in love with him and kept a poster of him on my bedroom wall. I told my mother I would marry him someday. (Never mind that he was already married and I must have been six years old.)

Mickey was The Natural – a golden blond god who could do it all (hit, run, field) better than anyone, and my crush on him lasted for years. It pained me as an adult to watch him drink himself to death, but my memory of his greatness as a player will never die.

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: Arts Coast Journal, Confessions of a She-Fan, Creative Pinellas, Peter Golenbock, Rays, Tampa/St. Pete, Yankees

My Preview of Yankees-Twins. Click on the Link and Enjoy!

September 28, 2019

The Yankees Destroy the Twins – HD 720p

 

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: ALDS, iMovie Trailer, October Baseball, Twins, Yankees

A Couple of Days Late

September 21, 2019

In the good old days, I used to stand in the shower, with or without goggles, and soak myself with champagne – all in an effort to emulate the clubhouse celebrations when the Yankees would clinch a playoff spot. This year? I had too much going on to take the photo after the Yanks won the division title the other night. So here’s a blast from the past.

I was happy, naturally, that the division was ours, but my mood was also somber. Not only was I concerned with all the injuries heading into the postseason, but I was dumbstruck when I read about Domingo German. Seriously? The young kid with the tremendous record this year and the promising future is suspended while MLB and the Players’ Union investigate charges of domestic violence? There must be a lot of truth to the claim, given how seriously everyone is taking it – plus the fact that German won’t pitch again in 2019. I’m sickened by all of this. Just disgusted.

So, yeah, I’m wildly eager to get the postseason underway and I hope our lack of starting pitching won’t send us packing after the first round. Somehow, this team, with all its bumps and bruises and disappointments, managed to win the division so there’s a fighting spirit that can’t be denied.

 

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: AL East winners, champagne celebration, domestic violence, Domingo German suspension, Yankees

This Is Ridiculous!

September 13, 2019

Let me get this straight. Hicks is not coming back this season and most likely having TJ surgery. And now, after the Yankees swept yesterday’s doubleheader in Detroit, we learn that Encarnaion (oblique), Sanchez (groin – again) and Happ (bicep – he’s had it for weeks) were sent back to New York for tests? And oh, by the way, Judge slammed into the wall (says he’s ok but who knows) and Kahnle (slammed his hand in frustration and needed his fingers examined) had problems too.

Do these players’s bodies not realize the Yankees are now in the home stretch? That’s we’re fighting tooth and nail for home field advantage? That we’d really, truly prefer not to be eliminated early in the playoffs and, in fact, would dearly love to win a championship?

Sanchez, Encarnacion and Happ are crucial to the Yankees’s success – crucial – as is Hicks, although we’ve managed to win without him. Sure, it’ll be great having a healthy Severino back if he’s able to pitch at the level of ace-dom – and Betances if he can return as the reliever who can bring heat and command. But jeez, I was really bummed after last night’s news.

Onto Toronto and God knows who goes down next.

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: Aaron Hicks, Blue Jays, Edward Encarnacion, Gary Sanchez, J.A. Happ, Tigers, Yankees

Men in Black

August 26, 2019

I wasn’t wild about the Players Weekend uniforms, although I would really have objected if I’d been a Dodgers fan and had to watch my team in all white; they looked like a cross between hospital orderlies and milkmen from the 1950s. But MLB has its weird traditions so black and white it was.

The good news is that the Yankees-Dodgers series turned out to deliver all the thrills we could have hoped for between two top teams. Yes, it would have been sweet if we hadn’t lost the middle game. But to have a Janer in Game 1 and then a tight contest and win in the finale was pretty damn great.

Judge is clearly back, which makes me very happy. He’s hitting homers and swinging the bat like the Judge we’ve come to know and love. LeMahieu continues to be Cashman’s best get in years. Gleybar is just a hitting machine. Mike Ford has filled in admirably. German, after a shaky start last night, settled down and pretty much shut out the Dodgers. And Paxton of all people pitched a really good game on Friday night.

The only bad news was Didi getting hit by a pitch on the shoulder.  Last I read he had a contusion, but let’s see further tests. We really can’t afford to lose him. (I’ve said that before about players who got injured, and somehow it’s worked out.)

I hope the team doesn’t have a letdown in Seattle, because playing the first-place Dodgers at their Stadium must have been a high. Right now we’re tied with Houston for the best record and we can’t lose ground.

I’ll keep an eye on the scores, but for me these next two weeks are all about the U.S. Open, so I’ll be glued to tennis.

 

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: Aaron Judge, black uniforms, Dodgers, Players Weekend, U.S. Open tennis, Yankees

Bad News in the Morning Makes Me Grumpy All Day

August 23, 2019

I really hate waking up, checking the Yankees score from the west coast game the night before, and discovering that they lost. I especially hate it when the Yankees play the A’s. Doesn’t it seem as if Oakland always gets hot toward the end of the season just in time for the playoffs? And doesn’t it seem as if they always have a starting pitcher who baffles the Yankees offense just enough to beat us? And doesn’t it seem as if we get beaten, as in swept, by the best teams (say, Houston)?

This morning, my first order of business was to reach for my laptop and check the score from last night, hoping the Yankees would win at lease ONE game in the A’s series. But NO. We got swept. Apparently, we didn’t have a single starter who could contain what does NOT amount to the most offensive club in the majors. I’m so angry in case it isn’t obvious.

Now we play the Dodgers for three games and that won’t be easy either, particularly with Paxton on the mound given his inconsistency. It’s this west coast swing that worried me the most when Cashman didn’t land a starter before the trade deadline. I knew we’d need one (or two) who could truly be stoppers.

On the plus side – and there’s always a plus side too – Gleyber continues to be a beast at the plate and thank God for that.

 

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: A's, Dodgers, Yankees

How Sweep It Is

August 5, 2019

Any Yankees sweep is great, but a four-game sweep against the Red Sox at the Stadium? Extra special. I loved watching the barrage of offense against Price – what fun. There was nail biting as Happ seemed to lose it and the score tightened, but the Yanks prevailed and put even more distance between the teams in the standings.

Of course, there were more injuries. I cannot believe how many players have been dropping like flies this season, more so lately, it seems. It wasn’t horrible enough that Encarnacion fractured his wrist thanks to the hit-by-pitch? We had to lose Hicks too? And coming on the heels of Voit, who may be having surgery for his hernia? And then Torres, who has been on fire lately and hits great at Camden Yards where the Yankees play next, has a “core issue” that needs evaluating? Oh, and let’s not forget Gio, who fouled not one but two balls off his legs last night. JEEZ. It’s great that the call-ups have been filling in so well, but COME ON. In the long run, we need guys to be healthy!

In the meantime, I’m reveling in last night’s sweep and hoping the momentum will carry into Baltimore.

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: David Price, injuries, J.A. Happ, Red Sox, Yankees

Bruised and Battered But Still Standing

July 29, 2019

What an awful week. Getting hammered by the big bats on the Twins was no picnic, and then came the trip to Fenway — a nightmare I’d like to forget. Salvaging the finale last night was nice (thank you, German, Didi, Gio, Romine, et al), but to have our starters used as punching bags, particularly in early innings, was depressing and only underscored the need for GOOD STARTING PITCHING.

Stroman is off the market now, not that he was on my list, so where is Cashman on this issue? If he can’t pull off a really good trade now, before the Wednesday deadline, when can he? His team simply won’t cut it in the postseason without a solid rotation and right now ours is in tatters. My preference? Go out and get HIM.

That’s right. I want Thor. He’s young, not some washed up veteran. And he can pitch. And he clearly has experience pitching in New York.

With Sanchez, CC and LeMahieu (that one hurts most of all) suffering from various injuries, the Yankees have to dig deep and keep the Red Sox and Rays at bay down the stretch. The road only gets tougher from here on. I’m cautious but hopeful.

 

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: Mets, Noah Syndegaard, Red Sox, Yankees

Yankees-Rays: A Fun Rivalry

July 19, 2019

The series with the Rays had just about everything, including good starting pitching, clutch hitting, a benches-clearing tiff, a Boone ejection and, best of all, enough “W’s” to put the Yankees safely in front of the Rays by eight games by the time it was all over (Boston is ten back.) There’s always tension and emotion when the two clubs play these days, and I really enjoy it.

I loved the way this team never seemed to give up, and in yesterday’s double-header, particularly in the nightcap, I loved the station-to-station hitting. I love homers too, of course, but moving players around the diamond was something the Yankees weren’t so good at in previous years.

German has really distinguished himself as a pitcher we can count on, and Urshela is just plain on a tear. Do we still need that starter before the deadline? Absolutely, if we’re going to step up and win this thing. The clock is ticking, Cashman. Keep working those phones.

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: Domingo German, Gio Urshela, Rays, Yankees

It’s Break Time

July 8, 2019

I was going to post last night, but I was still sulking over the Yankees’s two losses here to the Rays. I purposely didn’t go to any games during this series because whenever I go to the Trop, the Yanks lose and I didn’t want to be a jinx. The first two games went beautifully; I stayed away and we won. Not so for Games 3 and 4, and both were very winnable – and frustrating. Boston seems to have picked up steam and the Rays are flush with their two victories over us, and our lead in the division has shrunk. Not what I wanted to happen before the All-Star break.

I know, I know. We’re still out in front. And this team has played brilliantly no matter who’s injured. But there’s still a big item on Cashman’s To Do list that need checking off as we prepare for what is likely to be a grueling second half: another starter. Everybody knows we need one. I’d like us to get Scherzer, naturally. But any guy with a low ERA and a live arm will do.

I’d also like Encarnacion to hit more than the occasional homer. Sure, he came to the Yankees leading the leagues in homers, but it seems to me his outs far exceed the homers he’s hit thus far. Maybe he just needs to get acclimated to NY.

I’d like Judge to cut down on his strikeouts. He’s been hitting some majestic bombs, but didn’t he used to get singles and doubles too?

I’d like Didi to get hot. He’s a streaky hitter who goes on a tear with homers and then slumps at the plate. Consistency, please.

I’d like Chapman to stop the high-wire act every time he closes. Jeez, he gives me heart attacks.

I’d like Stanton to finally get healthy and stay healthy.

And I’d like someone to figure out what can be done to get Severino back. At this rate, I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll ever see him pitch again.

As for the All-Star game itself, as I’ve said many times, it’s not my thing. (Forget the Home Run Derby. Not a fan of that at all.) So I’ll be spending the break enjoying Wimbledon and other pastimes, and will look forward to baseball later in the week.

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: All-Star break, Rays, Yankees

I Changed My Mind: London Was a Blast

June 30, 2019

If you told me the Yankees would beat the Red Sox twice – both Janers – I would have said, “No way.” Of course, that’s what happened – a barrage of offense in the two-game series in London – to put even more distance in the standings between the two teams. Anything could happen after the All-Star break, but right now things are looking awfully positive. I’m tempted to say I wish that “ballpark” could travel back to the Bronx – talk about a hitter’s park – but the Red Sox scored a bunch too. I’ll stick with Yankee Stadium.

I was such a cynic about this series, but it looked like the players had fun despite the jet lag and I had fun seeing Meghan and Harry. And to witness that packed house for both games and such exuberant fans (most of whom must have been American ex-pats), was a beautiful thing.

I’m not happy that Voit got hurt or that Tanaka had a crummy outing or that we exhausted every arm in the bullpen, but they’ll all have a day off and should be able to shake off any travel grogginess. The Yankees are riding high right now, and without jinxing them I think it’s safe to say they’re the superior group in the AL league right now. Maybe in the majors, if we get a quality starter or two and another reliever.

Cheerio.

 

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: London series, Red Sox, Yankees

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Jane Heller is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her fourteen breezy, witty novels of romantic comedy and suspense are now entertaining millions of readers around the world, along with her two books of nonfiction.

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