SSTN Interviews Andrew Forbes

by Paul Semendinger

March 6, 2025

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Here is my interview with author Andrew Forbes.

Please tell our readers a little about yourself and, of course, your books.

I live in Peterborough, Ontario, which is close enough to Toronto that I can get into the city for a Blue Jays game and home again to sleep in my own bed. My wife and I have three children: two sons in high school, and a daughter in university. When I’m not driving someone to volleyball practice I write books.

Last summer I published McCurdle’s Arm, a novella about the life of a semipro ballplayer in 1890s Ontario. This coming spring I’ll be releasing Field Work, a collection of essays about the relationship between baseball and work. The animating spirit behind that one is a lefty screwball specialist named Hub Pruett, who pitched for the Browns in the 1920s. His superpower was striking out Babe Ruth. If that’s not enough Yankees-related content for you, I first encountered Pruett in the pages of Steve Steinberg’s wonderful Urban Shocker biography.

Of note, Andrew also published The Only Way Is The Steady Way and The Utility of Boredom.

What do you most enjoy about writing?

Having written, mostly. When it comes to writing about baseball, though, the research is the most enjoyable part – going deep into the stories and stats. I love old newspapers, biographies, combing through Baseball Reference, The Sporting News, and so on. I could do that all day long, and frequently do.

Why are people so drawn to baseball and its stories, legends, and people?

I think there are a lot of reasons, some of them having to do with similarities between the game’s structure and the shape of the hero’s journey narrative – the hitter embarking on a perilous voyage around the bases, beset by challenges, and attempting through guile and brawn to return home again.

But more than that I think its draw is in its longevity and its everydayness. It connects us to past generations of fans, and the sheer number of games that make up a season mean that there will always be more stories to uncover.

What is your favorite baseball book?

There are too many to name! If pressed to choose the work of just one writer, I’d lean toward Jane Leavy’s trio of biographies—Koufax, Mantle, and Ruth. Also Frank Deford’s book on Mathewson and McGraw, The Old Ball Game. John Thorn’s Baseball in the Garden of Eden for its wealth of information about the nineteenth century game. And of course I’d have to leave room for the ones I’ve yet to read. (I could go on and on.)

Outside of baseball, what is your favorite book and/or who is your favorite author?  (You can list as many as you wish.)

The novels of Rachel Kushner, Marilynne Robinson, Zadie Smith, Lauren Groff, Richard Ford, Fitzgerald. The short stories of Lorrie Moore, Flannery O’Connor, Chekhov. A collection called Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, by Kim Fu. Nonfiction by Jo Ann Beard, Elena Passarello, John Jeremiah Sullivan. Shakespeare. The lyrics of John Prine. Etc. etc. etc.

I love to talk about the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Which former Yankee most deserves to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Thurman Munson deserves more consideration, considering. And sooner or later they’ll have to grapple with the knotty issue of A-Rod, Roger Clemens, and other players implicated if not indicted in the steroid issue. Like Bonds, even while skinny Rodgriguez was a generational talent with eye-popping numbers.

What is the greatest baseball movie of all time?  (Yes, you can list a few!)

Bull Durham. Next question.

What is your favorite baseball memory?

Hard to choose just one, so I’ll divide it into three categories:

The most exciting thing I ever watched on TV was Joe Carter’s Series-winning homer in 1993.

The greatest day I ever spent at a ballpark was September 23, 2010, Seattle at Toronto. Felix Hernandez tossed a one-hitter, Ichiro set a record by collecting 200 hits in ten consecutive seasons, my daughter got a ball tossed to her by John Wetteland, and Jose Bautista hit his 50th homer of the season for a 1-0 Jays’ win.

And finally, in the non-MLB category, not a single memory, but the whole time I spent as an assistant coach for my twin sons’ team. It’s hard to beat hitting fungo to boys working to master the fundamentals, the balls skipping across a dusty infield under a blue sky and a hot summer sun. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

Great stuff as always, Andrew. Thanks for spending some time with me.