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Steve Steinberg, co-author of Mike Donlin: A Rough and Rowdy Life From New York Baseball Idol to Stage and Screen, joins the show. Enjoy!
Here are some highlights –
8:34-9:55: “Our interest is what was really ticking in the guy’s mind, what was he feeling, what was he thinking. And the years that we write about, and especially Donlin’s years, there were so many newspapers in New York City, more than a dozen of them. And in the early 1920s, by the way, they started merging. … These newspapers had a beat writer. And each of these newspapers had a sports editor, and each of these guys had their own connections. … You can sit at home and go online with some of these, Newspapers.com, NewspaperArchive.com, Genealogy Bank. But I found that there’s nothing that replaces going to the New York Public Library and just sitting there with a microfilm, which I think some people find a terribly boring thing. But I find it thrilling and exciting ‘cuz it’s like going back in a time machine; you don’t know what you’re gonna find.”
14:53-15:46: “I’ve heard from more than one person that when they read the beginning of the book they don’t like this guy very much, but by the end of the book they see another side of him emerge. … The fact remains that when you have these people that are more complicated it makes for a much more fascinating story. … I just find that the juices flow more when you have somebody who’s not so saintly.”
