Book signing at Excite Ballpark
The San Jose Giants hosted me on Saturday, June 1, for my very first book event. It was magical. As the staff opened the gates to season-ticket holders ahead of the night’s matchup between the Giants and the Fresno Grizzlies, I was just finishing setting up at the table they provided me. With the help of my trusty cousin and bookkeeper for the day, Leslie Behar, we were ready to start mingling with the crowd. My friend from college (UC Davis) and campus radio (KDVS 90.3 FM), Ben Taylor, was now the general manager for San Jose, San Francisco’s Single-A affiliate. He had this idea and facilitated it for me.
Before I could even get comfortable — I actually wasn’t quite done setting up — a fellow UC Davis Aggie alum named Jill approached us with curiosity. Quickly, she was interested and wound up purchasing a couple copies. It was a great confidence boost, especially so early in the evening, well before first pitch. Not only was Jill a fellow Aggie, but also we quickly learned that her husband was too and that her daughter Morgan had been on the swimming team for a couple of years while I was there. The kind and interesting people continued to visit as some more books were sold. Not too long after Jill’s visit, Ben stopped by again. I’d be throwing out the first pitch, he told me, and he would come to get me in about an hour. It was funny. He had asked me many months before, and I declined. Well, this time it wasn’t a question, and I wasn’t about to back out of it either; I wanted to do it.
It was Día de los Churros at the stadium, in which the Giants rebranded for the night as the Churros (does that mean I have to go back and change all Giants references to Churros?). And they were committed to the bit, every time referring to their team as the San Jose Churros over the public address system. Anyway, I had one of their specially-made churros at one point, and it didn’t disappoint. The team wore caps depicting a churro in a sombrero swinging a bat made out of a couple more churros. Anyway, when Marc, our second purchaser, was talking with us and learned, along with us, that I’d be throwing out the first pitch, he not only offered to let me borrow his jersey (I politely declined), but he also chipped in a little extra (on top of the book) to help my cousin buy me a Churros cap to commemorate my first event. It was so kind and something neither of them had to do of course. I love that cap and the gesture behind it even more.
So, Ben brought me onto the field, along with the other two guys slated to throw out the first pitch. I went second and followed the directions of Ben and the on-field staffer. As instructed, I walked to the mound upon hearing my name, briefly acknowledged the crowd and then tried not to embarrass myself. Judging from the video, I think I succeeded in surpassing that low bar; I believe that my pitch short-hopped into the catcher’s glove and was largely down the middle.
After the first pitch, I was joined at the mound by my catcher for the day, left-handed Mexican outfielder Guillermo Hernandez, who otherwise had the night off (he sat against southpaw Isaiah Coupet). Here I am with the 20-year-old, who three days later in Stockton would record three hits, including his sixth home run of the season, in San Jose’s 10-5 victory over the Ports.
Back at the booth, the rewarding conversations continued, and I met people from all walks of life. There was Steven who told me he wanted to come back to introduce me to his entire family. Sure enough, he did an inning or so later. They were all lovely, and just like Tony Barnette, Steven had two daughters roughly the same age as Madelyn and Loretta. They were softball players named Elena and Evelyn. I opened the book, flipped to the photo insert and showed them and their parents the pictures of Madelyn and Loretta. Earlier that night, Denis and his son, Aron, stopped by, another happy parent-kid pairing bonding by watching some minor league baseball.
Later, I met a substitute teacher named Shirley who was working at the bar at Excite Ballpark. She said her son was also in education as a special-ed teacher, I believe at the middle school level. Everyone we spoke to loved baseball and reading. That was the common thread. Before Shirley, another ballpark employee named Moira talked to us and bought a book. I particularly enjoyed inscribing a genuine message for each person, whether he/she wanted it written to them or someone important in their life. At times, after signing, I’d forget to put the jacket back on the book, something Leslie never failed to remind me to do. Leslie and I were a great team, and this one would go down as a massive success by all accounts. I can’t wait to plan more events.
I truly, from the bottom of my heart, want to thank Ben for conceptualizing the idea to have me on hand signing and selling books and for placing me in a spot with such great foot traffic in front of the bar on a busy Saturday night of baseball. Leslie as well. I would’ve been lost without her by my side.
See you at the next event?
*I didn’t list everyone we met or everyone who purchased books, but it was a pleasure speaking to each and every one. And I can’t wait for them to open it and start reading; in fact, I think and hope many already have. Thank you to them all.
ABG Purchase Links
A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back
By: Aaron Fischman
Release – June 18, 2024 (Pre-orders help so much, especially for first-time authors, and you’d receive your book(s) by the release date, depending on when exactly you order.)
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Baseball-Gaijin-Chasing-Dream-Japan/dp/1683584775/
(Hardcover: Currently on sale for $25.99; Kindle: $16.99)
(Hardcover: $30.68)
Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-baseball-gaijin-aaron-fischman/1143702297 (Hardcover: $32.99; eBook: $16.99)
*And it will be available anywhere else books are sold! Thank you for reading.
The Origins of the Book
Let’s start at the beginning. How’d this project, my first book, actually come to be? I’d be honored to share with you the serendipitous sequence of events that set it into motion.
Back in the spring of 2008, I was a freshman at UC Davis, just starting out in sports journalism. At the time, I hadn’t yet begun to participate in broadcasting for the campus radio station, KDVS. I was, however, contributing to a small, independently run website called Davis Sports Deli (Fun fact: My first-ever published piece of sports writing, was a 2007 NBA Mock Draft for DSD that I submitted that June. … And yes, I did have Greg Oden going No. 1. What? So did everyone else, and he did go first overall.). For the site, I concocted a college football bowl season series, for which my brother, who was in DC attending George Washington University, and I collaborated. As our Winter Breaks approached and unfolded, we took pleasure in trying to interview as many key players as we could, preferably at least one participant before each and every bowl game.
When spring rolled around, I decided to reach out to particular starting pitchers to blog (biweekly, I believe; the once-every-two-weeks kind) for the site. I chose Tony Barnette, whom the forthcoming book is centered around, and a handful of other Double-A pitchers, purely because they’d posted impressive K-per-9 and K:BB ratios over a decent number of innings. Double-A may seem like an arbitrary level, but the reasoning went this way: These guys were ascending up the minor league ladder, yet not so far advanced that they’d be less likely to ignore my request. Long story short, not one pitcher agreed to an interview – most didn’t even respond – with one exception: Tony Barnette. He was an innings-eater in the Diamondbacks organization for the Mobile BayBears of the Southern League. I got lucky. Not only would Tony stay consistent and timely with his blog entries, but he was also hilarious, opinionated, charismatic, quirky, brutally honest and just plain interesting.
As we kept in touch over the years, the Arizona State alumnus’ story became increasingly fascinating. It was in late 2009, not much more than a year and a half after we first “met,” that Tony was persuaded by the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and his soon-to-be agent, the legendary Don Nomura, to leave North America at age 26, just as he stood at the doorstep of achieving his lifelong dream of playing in the major leagues. Japan, specifically the Swallows, was offering the young pitcher a chance to increase his salary dramatically, a chance to develop his skills on the mound, and, possibly most exciting but not as much on his mind at the moment, an opportunity to experience a completely new language and culture in a land where baseball could, on occasion, be treated as a religious experience. Naturally, we asked Tony to blog about his funniest and most memorable experiences in Tokyo, and man, did he deliver! He skillfully blogged about many amazing, fascinating topics, but certainly the most poignant post recounted his experiences on the day of March 11, 2011, when the devastating earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster infamously struck northeastern Japan.
Around this time, ahead of Tony’s second Japanese season, Yakult converted him into a relief pitcher, which in retrospect seems to have saved his career. While in grad school at USC, as part of a project for an Advanced Sports Writing class and a Magazine Writing class, I conducted interviews with Tony, his girlfriend, Hillary, his mentor and former teammate, Aaron Guiel, his interpreter and friend, Go Fujisawa, and other key figures from his story. So I produced two Tony Barnette stories of varying lengths for school, but these were purposely never published. Tony’s career turnaround as well as his growth as a person on and off the field were impressive and worth writing about. With that said, I don’t believe his story would have been marketable in the U.S. had he not been signed by the Texas Rangers in late 2015 and shortly thereafter fulfilled his lifelong dream of pitching in the big leagues. What’s more, in Arlington, he performed quite effectively as a 32-year-old rookie while his team finished with the best record in the American League.
Anyway, a couple months after Tony signed with the Rangers, I reached out, asking if he would like to turn this thing into a book (By then, we’d known each for nearly eight years.). He enthusiastically agreed. We were confident it was a tale worth telling, and I felt good about the likelihood of a North American publisher agreeing with our assessment. Ultimately and fortunately, that turned out to be the case. This exhilarating true story centered around Tony Barnette is set to be released in hardcover form on June 18, 2024.
*Feel free to contact me directly (via email at aaronfischman519@gmail.com or text) for more information on how to pre-order from me. Check back here for more content coming soon, and thanks for your interest and/or support.
The book is also available for pre-order on Indiebound, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and wherever else books are sold.
The Book Is Coming!
Thank you for your interest in my first book, A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back, which comes out June 18, 2024. It’s an exciting time! As we prepare for the launch, plenty new content will appear above.
Best,
Aaron
My Spring 2018 Tokyo Trip (With Pictures)
When I decided I was all in, it was late January. A few times, my friend Jonathan Santiago had brought up the idea of me joining him in Tokyo, and I always said that it would be interesting but that I wasn’t ready to commit. He made it easy for me. He found cheap roundtrip flights for me to choose from. Plus, he was already going for a defined period of time, so I wouldn’t be alone. Up until this point, Israel (for Birthright) had been my only international experience outside of North America, and that was in the summer of 2011. So, I was due for a life-altering trip. More importantly, it provided a prime opportunity to combine work with leisure, given that I’m working on my first book, which focuses on an American baseball player’s (his name is Tony) exhilarating six-year journey in Japan.
After a series of train connections and a near-12-hour flight preceding those, I arrived at Shimo-Kitazawa station by early evening on Tuesday, April 17. Located in Setagaya, Tokyo, the massive city’s southwesternmost ward, the train station wasn’t a far walk from where my travel companion and I were staying. So he met me at the station. It was still light outside, although slightly overcast with a steady drizzle falling from the sky.
