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About the Author

Frank Deford is a six-time National Sportswriter of the Year, Senior Contributing Editor at Sports Illustrated, commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition, and a correspondent on the HBO show RealSports with Bryant Gumbel. In addition to being the author of more than a dozen books, he has been elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters and has been awarded both an Emmy and a Peabody. Sporting News describes Deford as “the most influential sports voice among members of the print media” and GQ simply calls him “the world’s greatest sportswriter.”

Print Reviews / Broadcast Interviews

• Washington Post, Denver Post, Baltimore Examiner, Boston Globe, Washington Flyer, Connecticut Post, Sports Illustrated and more
• Morning Edition (NPR) – book will be mentioned during Frank’s weekly commentary
• ESPN News – May 21, 2007
• WCCO Sports Tonight with Dark Star – May 21, 2007
• Boston NOW – May 22, 2007
• WVIT-TV/Channel 30/NBC – May 23, 2007
• Sports Biz – May 23, 2007
• ESPN Mike & Mike in the Morning – May 24, 2007
• Norm Hitzges KTCK-FM – May 24, 2007
• Baseball Beat with Charley Steiner (XM) – May 24, 2007
• Fox Sports Radio Network – Steve Czaban – May 25, 2007
• ESPN Radio “The V Show with Bob Valvano” – May 25, 2007
• WBAL-AM – Sportsline with Steve Davis
• Mike and Murray Show on Sirius – May 31, 2007
• Authors Revealed – June 7, 2007
• WBEZ-FM Eight Forty-Eight with correspondent Richard Steele – June 8, 2007
• Milt Rosenberg Show WGN-AM – June 8, 2007
• Hudson Cable TV Network – June 10, 2007
• WTAM-AM Wills & Snyder in the Morning – June 11, 2007
• WCPN-FM (Cleveland) The Sound of Ideas – June 11, 2007
• The Bob Edwards Show (XM) & Bob Edwards Weekend (PRI)
• The Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC-FM)
• Colorado Public Radio – June 28, 2007
• KPBS-TV “Full Focus” June 29, 2007
  

Book Tour

• B&N (NYC) – May 10 at 6:30 p.m.
• Politics & Prose (D.C.) – May 16, 2007 at 7 p.m.
• Borders (Tulsa) – May 18, 2007 at noon
• Oklahoma City Book Festival – May 19, 2007
• Just Books (Old Greenwich, CT) – May 22 2007 at 7:30 p.m.
• R.J. Julia (Madison, Connecticut) – May 23, 2007 at 7 p.m.
• Elm Street Books (New Canaan, Connecticut) – May 24, 2007at 7:30 p.m.
• Borders (Boston) – May 30, 2007 at 1 p.m.
• Book Expo America (New York City) – June 2, 2007 at 11:30 a.m.
• Anderson’s (Naperville, Illinois) – June 7, 2007 at 7 p.m.
• Printers Row Book Fair (Chicago) – June 9, 2007
• Learned Owl (Cleveland) – June 10, 2007 at 2 p.m.
• Joseph-Beth (Cleveland) – June 11, 2007 at 7 p.m.
• Ridgefield, CT Public Library – June 14, 2007
• Borders (Fairfield, Connecticut) – June 16, 2007 at 2 p.m.
• Powell’s Books (Portland, Oregon) – June 25, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
• Borders (San Francisco) – June 27, 2007
• Denver Forum – June 28 2007,, lunchtime event
• City Club of San Diego – June 29, 2007, evening event (co-sponsored by San Diego Padres)
• Borders (Los Angeles) – June 30, 2007

About the book

Baseball is a game of instinct and keen observation, of knowing which way the ball is going to bounce off a broken bat and knowing whether a player wears his pants high or low. At least it is to Howie Traveler, who never made it as a player—his one major league hit and .091 batting average attest to that.

After years of struggling his way up the coaching ladder, Howie's finally been given his shot to manage in the big leagues. But America's pastime has changed. Whether Howie can spot a small flaw in a batter's swing won't matter if he can't manage today's megastar players—especially his superstar outfielder, Jay Alcazar.

If Howie can't get through to Jay—a homerun slugger with giant talents and an ego to match—his managing career will be over as soon as it began. But Jay has no use for Howie. Until, that is, one night at the hotel when Howie sees something at Jay's door he wishes he hadn't...

From six-time National Sportswriter of the Year and NPR commentator Frank Deford comes a page-turning novel that takes you deep into America's game. The Entitled (May 16; 978-1-40220-896-6; $24.95; fiction) is a tale of modern baseball. It takes you inside a ball club and inside the mind of a defeated manager and a champion slugger, as only Deford can. He creates a world where the idealism of the old game meets the reality of today’s sports landscape, as idolized millionaires step in to replace the boyhood heroes of yesterday. Deford’s writing is authentic and emanates today’s baseball. Fans who already know quite a bit about the game will get more knowledge out of this book than they have with non-fiction books on the genre.

Praise for The Entitled

“Frank Deford fills his book with baseball lore, baseball history and baseball knowledge, some of it pleasingly eccentric (as it should be). And Deford, as any sports reader or NPR listener knows, is quite funny… Like a baseball game, The Entitled is well-paced and thoughtful, with just enough action and adrenaline. This story of old school meeting the modern game is, as Howie might say, an altogether good read.” — Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness

“I wish it were longer, and that's something that I've rarely said about the baseball games I've covered in 30 years as a sportswriter. But it's how I felt while reading The Entitled, the new baseball novel by Frank Deford.” — Terry Pluto, The Washington Post

“… more than a terrific baseball book. It's a terrific book, period.” — Sports Illustrated

“Deford shows the darker side of pro-baseball.” — The Connecticut Post

“[An] engrossing, well-written novel…readers are exposed to a richly textured understanding of baseball and, no less, of estrangement, ambition, mendacity, and the search for one's destiny—notwithstanding the cost in human or financial terms. The outcomes of the many subplots will generate surprise, delight, and disappointment and will sharply divide the members of any reading club—as one would expect with a story that is so true to life.” —Library Journal

“A sweet tale…enhanced by Deford's great conversational writing style.” —Kirkus

“Deford scores another hit with this novel of athletes behaving badly…tackles timely and provocative issues without flinching.” —Publishers Weekly

“Veteran sportswriter and best-selling author Deford creates two fascinating characters…”
— Booklist

“I loved The Entitled and could not put it down. It was a great read from start to finish with characters that reminded me of the many people I've known and played with –– pure baseball.” –– Lou Piniella, manager, Chicago Cubs

“Frank Deford is not just an immensely talented sports writer, he’s an immensely talented American writer. The Entitled is his wise and pleasurable portrait of a Willy Loman-like baseball manager finally getting his chance in the Bigs late in his career.” —David Halberstam

“The Entitled is a baseball masterpiece, like The Natural and Field of Dreams; the difference is the plot and the characters depict the true inside world of baseball. Frank Deford writes like he played in the majors for 10 years. If you have a passion for baseball, this is a must read.” —Mike Schmidt, Baseball Hall of Fame

“To praise Frank Deford's The Entitled as a baseball novel is both imprecise and unfair. It's an excellent novel! While it contains all of the keen insider knowledge one expects of America's premier sports journalist, it also displays his gifts for dialogue and intricate plotting and his poignant grasp of character. It proves once again that Deford can play at the highest level in any league.” —Michael Mewshaw, author of The Year of the Gun

"The Entitled sets for itself no less a task than limning the conscience of our age. In men like Traveler and Alcazar we find the beating heart and struggling soul of baseball; and in their story we rediscover the redemptive power of the game’s simple magic and moral order. Intimately bound by their circumstance, by mutual need and grudging respect--and finally by their love--they are at once the past, the present and the future of our national pastime. Another great American read by America’s greatest living sports writer. “—Jeff MacGregor, Sports Illustrated; author of Sunday Money