Book Birthdays, Nebraska

Happy Book Birthday to Big Cat

Book Birthdays celebrate one year of a book’s life in social media posts, reviews, and more. This month we’re saying Happy First Book Birthday to Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize (Nebraska, 2024) by Jerry Grillo.

About the Book:

Johnny Mize was one of the greatest hitters in baseball’s golden age of great hitters. Born and raised in tiny Demorest, Georgia, in the northeast Georgia mountains, Mize emerged from the heart of Dixie as a Bunyonesque slugger, a quiet but sharp-witted man from a broken home who became a professional player at seventeen, embarking on an extended tour of the expansive St. Louis Cardinals Minor League system.

Few hitters have combined such meticulous bat control with brute power the way Mize did. Mize was a line-drive hitter who rarely struck out and also hit for distance, to all fields, and usually for a high average. Nicknamed the Big Cat, “nobody had a better, smoother, easier swing than John,” said Cardinals teammate Don Gutteridge. “It was picture perfect.”

A Word from the Author:

When Big Cat was published in April 2024, it marked the end of one part of the journey and the beginning of another. This is only my second book, so I’m just guessing here, but I suppose that’s how it is for almost every author.

You spend a good deal of time and energy writing, then you turn in the manuscript and go through editing, then after an interminable wait, your first copies arrive. And it’s a happy birthday! There’s nothing like opening that first box of books. It’s time to celebrate, and time to get on with the second part of the journey: Getting the book out there!

I’ve been lucky to have some help with that part from terrific podcasters, writers, and broadcasters who have been kind enough to let me tell the story of Big Cat or review the book themselves.

All of it has been a great deal of fun: podcasts like Hooks & Runs, SportsLit, Good Seats Still Available, The Twin Bill, Our Missouri; book talks with several SABR chapters (including the Clyde Sukeforth, Elysian Fields, and Bob Davids chapters); a featured author talk at the Dahlonega Literary Festival; not to mention, a great event at historic Manuel’s Tavern in Atlanta sponsored by A Capella Books. And there’s more to come, including a talk at the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore later this summer, another at the Northeast Georgia History Center, and yet another at the Georgia Writers Museum.

Still plenty to do and I’m just scratching at the surface. My sincerest apologies to everyone that I haven’t mentioned. But the best thing of all in the post-writing part of this whole book business is an unforeseen third part of the journey.

Atlanta filmmaker Hal Jacobs enjoyed Big Cat so much he’s decided to base his next documentary on the book, and the story behind the book. The film, currently titled Big Cat of Georgia, should be ready for viewing at film festivals and on public television stations this summer. I hope you’ll keep an eye out for Big Cat on a big (or little) screen soon!

Reviews:

“In Big Cat, Grillo provides readers with a well-written, absorbing biography that is worthy of the dominant slugger it portrays.”—Kent Krause, Missouri Historical Review

“This is a well-deserved, well-written biography of a Hall of Famer, who is frequently overlooked.”—seamheads.com

“The gimlet-eyed slugger on this book’s cover is Johnny Mize, a player most modern baseball fans hardly recognize. In Big Cat, Jerry Grillo will reacquaint readers with one of the most feared hitters who ever prowled the diamond.”—J. Kemper Campbell, Lincoln Journal Star

“Hall of Fame slugger Johnny Mize was always an elusive and intriguing hero. In this insightful and well-crafted biography of the great slugger, Jerry Grillo takes us from rural Georgia through World Series glory to Cooperstown as he captures the essence of the man and his time.”—Donald Honig, novelist and baseball historian

“As sports journalist Jerry Grillo amply demonstrates in this excellent biography, Mize was as unique as his legendary swing. . . For anyone interested in the time when baseball ruled America’s athletic landscape, Big Cat proves to be a captivating read.”—R. W. Roberts, CHOICE

“[Grillo] perfectly threads the needle and infuses his writing with humor. . . . Now, [Mize’s] career can also lay claim to having an absorbing book tell the tale of his most extraordinary baseball life.”—Jason Cannon, NINE

“In an engaging writing style that crisply moves along with flourishes of narrative non-fiction elegance, Grillo advances the understanding of home-run-hitter Johnny Mize. Given the author’s use of Mize’s personal archives and interviews with his surviving family members, this biography will likely be the definitive biographical work on the life of Mize.”—Charlie Bevis, bevisbaseballresearch.wordpress.com

Interviews:

Good Seats Still Available

Speaking of Writers

Off the Deaton Path

Our Missouri

New Books Network

Twin Bill

Sports Lit

Hooks & Runs

On Social Media:

Leave a comment