About this item
"A unique and refreshing ode to the "little things" that represent baseball's heartbeat--the player who, in countless ways, makes other players better. Intangiball tracks the progress of the Cincinnati Reds through five years of culture change, beginning with the trades of decorated veterans Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey, Jr. It also draws liberally from such character-conscious clubs as the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, and Tampa Bay Rays. Author, sportswriter, and eternal fan of the game, Lonnie Wheeler systematically identifies the performance-enhancing qualities (PEQs) that together comprise the "communicable competitiveness" that he calls "teamship." Intangiball is not designed to debunk Moneyball, but rather to sketch in what it left out: "What order is there to a baseball world in which a struggling rookie benefits not a bit from the encouraging words of the veteran who drapes his arm around the kid's shoulders; in which Derek Jeter's professionalism serves none but him; in which there is no reward for hustle, no edge for enthusiasm, no payoff for sacrifice; in which there is no place for the ambient contributions of David Eckstein, Marco Scutaro, or the aging, battered Scott Rolen; in which shared purpose serves no purpose?" Intangibles, as it turns out, not only ennoble the game; they help win it.
About the Author
Lonnie Wheeler is a former journalist and the author of non-fiction books. His latest, Pitch by Pitch, marks his third collaboration with baseball great Bob Gibson. Released on October 6, 2015, by Flatiron Books, it tracks Gibson's historic performance in Game One of the 1968 World Series. Pitch by Pitch closely follows Intangiball, which was released on August 11, 2015. Published by Simon & Schuster, it champions the value of intangibles in relation to baseball players and teams. For Intangiball, Wheeler was a winner of the 2016 SABR Baseball Research Award.A native of St. Louis, Wheeler moved to Kirksville, Missouri, during his high school years, and there began his newspaper career. As a journalism student at the University of Missouri (class of 1974) , he interned in the sports departments of the Cincinnati Enquirer and Miami Herald. He returned to the Enquirer in 1977 and left in 1984 to pursue freelance writing. Wheeler later wrote a sports column for the Cincinnati Post. His first book, The Cincinnati Game, was co-authored by John Baskin and published by Orange Frazer Press in 1988. The same year saw the release of Bleachers, for which Wheeler spent a season watching ballgames from the bleachers of Wrigley Field. In 1991, he collaborated on Hank Aaron's autobiography, I Had A Hammer, which reached No. 5 on the New York Times bestseller list. He also assisted on the autobiographies of Gibson (Stranger to the Game) and Mike Piazza (Long Shot) , another Times bestseller; and joined Gibson and Reggie Jackson to write Sixty Feet, Six Inches. Wheeler's other collaborations include the memoirs of former Detroit mayor Coleman Young (Hard Stuff) and Omega Boys Club founder Joe Marshall (Street Soldier) . In 1998, he described the culture of Kentucky basketball in Blue Yonder. Lonnie and his wife, Martie, live in Cincinnati, Ohio, where they raised three children: Abby, Clark, and Emily.
