"Here’s The Pitch 2026" Announced!

By Dan Schlossberg - Special from the IBWAA

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Now it can be told: the second edition of the Here’s the Pitch paperback will feature bylines of 11 different members of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America [IBWAA].

Here’s the Pitch 2026 will also feature three action pictures taken this season by award-winning New Jersey photographer Bill Menzel. They are a cover shot of Cal Raleigh, who led both leagues with a 60-homer seasons for the Seattle Mariners, and interior shots of pitchers Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox and Christopher Sanchez of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The compact paperback, scheduled for publication in early November, will have 30 articles on a wide variety of subjects, including 2026 rookies, 2007 Hall of Fame voting, and a point/counterpoint on The Game’s Best Player: Aaron Judge vs. Shohei Ohtani.

All articles are reprinted from this newsletter, which is published every day but Sunday and holidays, and updated to include 2025 statistics.

It is positioned as the first of the 2026 pre-season annuals.

Again produced by ACTA Publications of Niles, IL, the 2026 edition will feature red borders on front and back covers and a foreword by Jayson Stark, recipient of the Hall of Fame’s 2019 J.G. Taylor Spink Award for excellence in baseball journalism.

All other articles were written by members of the IBWAA. Those with multiple bylines include Mark Kolier, W.H. Johnson, Paul Jackson, and Andrew Sharp (3 each) and Dan Freedman (2). Those with one byline each are Jeff Kallman, Bob LeMoine, Bill Pruden, Paul Semendinger, and Russ Walsh.

As editor-in-chief of this new annual project, I worked closely with Greg Pierce of ACTA Publications, best-known for producing The Bill James Handbook for 34 consecutive years.

Seven of my essays were selected, helping to strike a balance between the just-ended season and the next one, with an ample helping of baseball history both Greg and I felt was like adding an ample helping of stuffing to a Thanksgiving platter.

Subjects in the 2026 book range from spring training to gambling but also include an analysis of analytics, Hall of Fame voting, and the rising role of women in baseball.

The resurrection of Pete Rose, the enthusiasm of Jimmy Carter, and the popularity of the Savannah Bananas are all here — as is the strange-but-true Three Way Game that served as an Armed Forces fund-raiser in 1944.

Our history section also brings to life other wartime stunts, not to mention the House of David, Toots Shor’s watering hole, and a little-known altitude record not found in any baseball encyclopedia.

We explain the value of versatility — not to mention contact hitters and those adept at hitting fungos. Lots of big hitters are here too: Lou Gehrig for losing a home run, Ted Williams for a lengthy on-base streak, and Babe Ruth just because he’s still larger than life so many years after his death.

Our writers tell readers why first at-bat home run don’t mean much and also how to enjoy one-sided games. There’s also a story about one home run that kept on traveling until it reached a record distance from its point of origin.

Team songs and individual walk-up music play well together in these pages and there’s lots of Timeless Trivia, all culled from the newsletter.

This was a fun project but a difficult one, since so much fine writing finds its way into each edition of the Here’s the Pitch newsletter.

The book was created last year by Greg Pierce of ACTA as a successor (though not a replacement) to the Bill James volume.

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HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is author or editor of 43 baseball books, including Here’s the Pitch 2026 and The New Baseball Bible. He’s available to give baseball power points, talks, and book-signings.