Now comes the really hard part

My book is officially out in bookstores and is available online. Just checked with Barnes and Noble. It is ranked No. 526,894 in sales. Bet you didn't know there were 526,894 books out there, did you?

We had our first book signing 10 days ago at a small neighborhood saloon. It went very well. Sold damn near 100 books. Had a great party. The owner made a lot more than he usually would on a Sunday and we made some money. I think all who came had a blast. Terrific day all in all.

But the book business is a lot like the politics or the major league baseball business - what have your done for us lately? We are just starting to hit the hustings - I am doing a pair of radio interviews this week and have a book signing set for April 10. To truly make the book a success for Triumph (the company that printed it.), we need to sell at least 3,000 books. To my knowledge, we have sold roughly 125.

Got a little work to do, don't we?

Friends of mine who are authors tell me this is the way it is in the book business. You need to hustle the product all the time. It's kind of job hunting - it's a fulltime job in addition to your duties.

I'm not griping - I signed up for this duty and am embracing it fully. And there are some things that should help sales coming up - the MLB season opens up next week. Mother's Day and Father's Day is around the corner. Now that local lad Joe Mauer has been signed and the team's new home, Target Field, is open for business, there is a lot of enthusiasm for the Twins around these parts.

So I have high hopes of advancing past position No. 526,894 soon. But there is some heavy lifting ahead. Finding somebody who would write a terrific review of the book would help immensely. Anybody know Jon Miller's phone number?

Some dreams do come true

We all have a little Walter Mitty in us. Walter Mitty was the fictional character created by James Thurber who had a series of daydreams about achieving greatness. Whereas Mitty was dreaming about this stuff to escape what he considered a mundane existence, most of us dream (or at least imagine) doing something that might be considered out of reach. In high school or college, it might have been something as simply as getting the cute blond girl in the third row of your Algebra class to go on a date with you Saturday night.

Later, it might be something shooting 69 on the golf course. It might be getting that cabin up north you always wanted. The field is always wide-open for dreamers.

For me, it was always writing a book. I have been a fan of reading since I was kid poring over every Chip Hilton and Hardy Boys mystery I could find in St. Francis' library. How did these guys find the time to put such a project together? Did I have the patience (and the verbiage) to put a book together?

When I found myself gainfully unemployed a year and a half ago, I decided the time was right to take the plunge. I had an idea for a book that I thought might work. The thought was the easy part. Getting somebody to publish it ... to say nothing of writing the damn thing ... was the tough part.

After a couple of false starts, I found somebody who thought my idea was a good one. I got the contract and then had to really go to work. It's one thing to have an idea for a book. It's another altogether to execute it.

I wrote the first part of it and turned it over to a trusted friend for editing comments. The first reviews were, to be mild, unkind. After a few helpful hints about style and phraseology, I got on track and the copy started to flow better. By the end of the book, the editing comments were down to a few. (I worried this was because my editor was getting bored. She said that wasn't the case. She said I had found my voice.) The book went to the publisher, who made a few changes (none that I really quibbled with).

A year after I started, the project is now finished. Yesterday, it arrived at my house in finished condition. Thus it is that "162-0: The Greatest Wins In Twins History" is now a reality.

To many, it will be considered a light tome. The concept is the Minnesota Twins have a perfect season by via their best win in their history on April 11, May 16, July 4, etc. The games go back to 1961 and run through the end of last season. There are four World Series wins kicked in for good measure.

Okay, so it is now War and Peace. Tolstoy has his niche. Mine is simply in a different direction.

Triumph Books is putting the book out. As of tomorrow (March 17), it is available online at www.amazon.com.

It is exciting, humbling and a little frightening to actually think this idea, which was a concept a little more than a year ago, is done and in print. Little ol' me now has a small spot in the LIbrary of Congress (all books are registered there) with Hemingway, Updike and even Jesse Ventura. Move over, Clair Bee (who wrote the Chip Hilton books). You've got company.

Writing a book is one thing. Writing a successful book is another matter. I have modest hopes folks will find it entertaining enough that I can make a case to the publisher to write a second one.

That is next week's battle. For now, excuse me if I take a second to enjoy (and marvel) at this one.

This Olympic loss doesn't hurt as much

As this is written, it has been a little over two hours since the great game ended. Canada nudged the USA, 3-2, in overtime in the Gold Medal Game in the Olympics before a roaring, adoring crowd in Vancouver. As so happens in these cases, the winning play was a bit of a fluke. A puck bounced an official's skate right to a Canadian player, who forwarded it to Sidney Crosby, who has the fastest wrists since Hank Aaron's heyday. Crosby did what he does best ... and the party was on.

But some losses don't hurt too much. Oh, it would have been grand if the USA, a huge underdog that dumped the Canadians fair and square a week ago, had won the game. They made a noble comeback, stunning the hometowners with a goal in the final minute of play to force OT.

But the beauty of this sport is the game wasn't going to end in a tie. You play to win and the locals made the right play. There was nothing the Americans could do but shake the winner's hand, wish them well and head home.

Hockey is a misunderstood sport by many because, at times, it is played crudely. Then there are times -- and this game was one of them -- where its majesty is there for all to see. Both goalies were superb today. The passing was excellent, the hits were solid and clean and the defenses were stout. There was constant plays and counterplays. Canada's early 2-0 lead looked safe and shaky at the same time. And just when the hometown crowd thought they could exhale their breath, the Americans made a remarkable play to force bonus overtime.

In the end, the sport may turn out to be the biggest winner. When the game is played as it was today, even the nonfans stopped what they were doing to watch. Losing is ... well ... disappointing and frustrating. But today was the rare game when the losing team had no reason whatsoever to question anything they did. They did everything they could but win. Deep down inside, one suspects most of the players probably know this already. But it needed to be said publicly anyway.

Nothing to cheer about here

We had some very sad news in our little part of the world yesterday. Two longtime Catholic schools - St. Bernard's High School and Holy Childhood Grade School - announced they will close for good at the end of the school year. St. Bernard's served the Rice Street area of St. Paul for 119 years. It was always a small school ... and that is what probably did it in. But it kept a lot of kids on the straight and narrow path while not trying to beat anybody over the head with a Catholic message. I did the p.a. for their football games for years. They rarely had good teams but they always played hard and fair.

I have a lot of friends who graduated from there and who work there. They are fine people, credits to society.

We need schools like this and Holy Childhood to keep some sanity in the world.

Last night, I was working a hockey game involving Como Park, a public school that has always been a big athletic rival of St. Bernard's. To a man, the CP people were shaking their heads in disbelief and sorrow at the news.

I am sure the decision by the archdiocese was a sound one based solely on the financial situation of the school ... and the parish. All I can say is the decisions hurts like hell.

It's the little things you miss

Yesterday, I made the final step to recovery from my little heart episode. Dr. Kravitz removed the penicillin PICK that has been in my right arm for five weeks. Now I can take a shower without a bag on my arm and I am no longer dragging a bowling ball around with me.

It's amazing the little things you miss.

From what I read and heard, it sounds like President Clinton's problem yesterday was very similar. Great bodies think alike. Hope he doesn't end up with a PICK, too.

Welcome to our world

There is much ado being made tonight about a big snowstorm in the Washington, DC area. Word is anywhere from 1-2 feet of snow is going to fall in a span of roughly 30 hours.

That's a lot of white stuff. Being a glass half-full guy, I see a bright light in their troubles. The next time we grumble to them about weather difficulties, those folks might be a bit more sympathetic to our plight.

One can only hope.

Scoops can be risky business

It used to be that it was a big deal to get a scoop that would run in the next day's paper. Such, sadly, is no longer the case. Today's scoop gets on the internet in a matter of seconds. By the time a paper writes it, half the world knows the story ... if it turns out to be true.

There was a big hullabaloo here yesterday when Mark Rosen, a longtime TV sports guy here, reported that Joe Mauer, the Twins' catcher, had an agreement for a 10-year contract. You could hear the sighs of relief from Bagley to Yankton because catchers who can hit and throw like Mauer are rare commodities, indeed. The fear was that if Mauer, who can become a free agent after the 2010 season, ever got on the market, the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers would offer him more money than the combined GNP of, say, Canada.

But the signs of content have turned to worry again. Seems Mr. Rosen has had to backpedal a bit on his claim the deal was done. By the time the 10 p.m. report came around, he was offering up the idea that the "framework" for such a deal is in place.

In short, the pen has not come out and the deal is not done.

This is what happens in a competitive society where TV guys double up on radio and want to scoop everybody else. In the past, a TV guy could make an outrageous claim and, if it wasn't in the papers, it would be forgotten a day later.

No longer.

I know Mark a bit. He is a good guy. I am sure he thought he had enough to break a story. But TV guys often misunderstand what print guys know: that a card laid is a card played. Even if the story turns out to be true down the line (say, tomorrow or even a week from now), it was not correct when he said it. In the newspaper biz, your butt gets in a lot of trouble for making that sort of mistake. In TV, if your ratings are good enough, such a mistake tends to get forgotten.

Those who do remember, however, will keep it in mind the next time they hear a "scoop" come from Mark.

TV sports guys used to have 2 or 3 shows to do in a day. Total time on the air: roughly 10 minutes. Not a lot of time to get in trouble.

But it is different now. With updates, radio shows, tweets and facebook info, the chance for mistakes are much higher. Losing your credibility is a bit like your virginity. You never get it back totally.

Hope there are some budding TV journalists out there who are paying attention.