SonS of BaSeBall

By riChard poSluSzny

Iam not sure how to best describe it, but there’s something very different about baseball when you compare it to other sports. Sure, it’s America’s pastime. There’s something more to it than that though.

When you arrive at a Major League Baseball (MLB) game, you emerge from the darkness of a stadium’s tunnels and you’re immediately struck by the perfectly presented playing field. The vibrant green grass that’s mowed just right. The freshly laid baselines. Players taking batting and fielding practice. You may even catch a waft of a hot dog or beer. Then, there’s something unmistakable. The crisp crack of a wooden bat sending a ball into the outfield. It’s all a bit magical.

While all of that is certainly special, for years people have been trying to synthesize something else about the game: How it connects people and how bonds are formed. Phil Alden Robinson’s “Field of Dreams,” which starred Kevin Costner, is arguably the keystone in that effort. That said, it hasn’t stopped others from exploring what the game means to people.

Glen Rock’s Mark Braff is the latest to delve into the topic. A first-time author, Braff has published

“Sons of Baseball: Growing Up with a Major League Dad.”

An original idea he conceived several decades ago, Braff initially thought about fathers and their sons having a catch. Braff notes, “There’s more of a tendency for fathers and sons to have a catch than, say, pass a hockey puck or shoot hoops. And, you get that one-to-one time with your dad.”

Then, he wondered about the professional players’ behind-the-scenes situations. Do players that have made it to The Show even want to have a catch? What about the pressure on their kids as they learn to develop their baseball skills in youth leagues?

I am sure this isn’t a surprise to Braff’s family and friends. He’s been a baseball aficionado for as long as he can remember. For Braff, the site of the old Yankee Stadium is his mecca.

“[Yankee Stadium] is the one place where I have memories from my entire life, from age eight to present. I went there with my dad, who took me to my first game. I took the bus when I went with my friends. I went with my wife when we started dating and after my sons were born, I took them. There’s no other place that represents this continuum,” Braff says. “When I think of baseball, I think of it in terms of my life and those moments at games with my dad, my wife and my sons. And, all those great memories we shared through the years.”

After shelving the concept due to timing constraints and this sort of project requiring extensive travel to execute properly, Braff kept the idea in his back pocket. It wasn’t until his retirement was looming that it was reinvigorated.

During his last year of work as a public relations professional in 2020, Braff found himself conducting the majority of his business through video calls. Although writing a book “wasn’t on my radar,” Braff says that he remembered his faded idea and he had a light bulb moment. Essentially, Braff realized that he didn’t have to travel to make these interviews happen and he could do it all by using Zoom. In turn, interviews can happen faster and, even better, it would be significantly more cost effective.

Braff recalls sharing the idea with his wife, Laura, saying, “I think I have a retirement project.” She wished him good luck and off he went.

Starting in January 2021, Braff put on his journalist hat. It had been a while since he “went to the dark side” in PR, but he just needed to get into the mindset of his early days as a reporter and news editor at The Paramus Post.

Braff’s biggest challenge was curating the content. After all, he figured he would need around 15 interviews. Firstly, finding professional athletes’ family members that are open to having a conversation with a first-time author is a difficult task. If you’re a writer for Sports Illustrated or The New York Times, it helps grease the wheels. Adding to that, there was the complication of locating a subset of candidates that actually wanted to talk: Sons. They’re not exactly a dime a dozen.

“I had serious doubts about getting the content. I felt that I needed six or seven in the bank before I would be comfortable enough to start writing, with a goal of getting to 15. All said and done, I was able to get 18.”

Thankfully, the baseball community is a giving one. Having seen some of the space’s top sports journalists’ generosity first-hand via social media platforms, Braff dove in and started leveraging the power of his network to make connections and set up introductions.

It worked.

While Braff finds it difficult to pick a favorite interview, he did note one takeaway, “Pretty much all of these guys seem to be really happy to talk about their dads and growing up in that environment.”

Braff adds, “The sons are just like ours. There were some families that were close, others not so much. All of the emotions and experiences we have as we grow up were the same, Continued on page 34 however, the major difference was the backdrop –growing up in ballparks. That said, we still can’t imagine what they ultimately had to deal with.”

In the book, there’s hard-hitting stories. Braff connects with one son whose father becomes estranged once he and the mother divorce. As the years go on, their paths unexpectedly cross but the strain on the relationship is real as the dad simply isn’t in the picture. Also, Braff speaks with another son that has a relationship with his father, however, there is one caveat: The dad refuses to acknowledge his son’s sexual orientation. At the end of the day, the son – who is gay – is left yearning for his father’s acceptance. Maybe, just maybe, if that dad picks up the book, it will serve as the catalyst for a dialogue to happen.

Once the content was completed, Braff thought that all he would need to do is produce a manuscript and distribute it to publishers to capture their interest. Unfortunately, he was wrong. It’s far more complex than that.

First, Braff would have to compile a book proposal. From there, he could take that document to literary agents that cover the sports genre and, if they were interested, they could use it as a tool to pitch publishers. After some rejections and a lot of radio silence from submissions, Braff heard back from an agent who wanted to learn more. Braff makes it clear, Jill Marr was his champion from day one.

If you thought that’s all, however, guess again. That’s because it was only the start of what turned out to be a meandering journey. Additionally, Braff had to put together a detailed index, acquire photos via museums, families, personal collections and more, and he had to do multiple rounds of edits to the book’s copy.

All in, it was approximately a 30-month commitment.

There was one crucial thing missing though. A bit of credibility. At the suggestion of Marr, Braff was tasked with further leveling up his book. Braff needed to get someone with serious brand equity to write a relevant foreword.

And, boy, did Braff come through. That’s because he landed Cal Ripken Jr. to do the honors. I mean, honestly, can you do any better than that? Just wait until you read what Ripken wrote.

Looking back, Braff isn’t sure if he would have approached the project differently. One thing is certain though. He’s glad that he wasn’t fully aware of the roadblocks he’d come up against as it may have discouraged his pursuit.

“I’ve had friends ask me, ‘Are you going to write another book?’” Braff slyly brings up the ending of “Rocky.” Remember when the bell rings, and Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed are holding onto each other, completely exhausted? Creed says, “Ain’t gonna be no rematch,” and Rocky replies, “Don’t want one.” That sort of sums it up.

But, Braff smirks and readily admits, “Maybe I’d do it again.”

“Sons of Baseball: Growing Up with a Major League Dad” is available at fine bookstores everywhere as well as online retailers in print, e-book and audio formats.