SSTN Interviews K.P. Wee

By Paul Semendinger

May 15, 2025

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Today I am sharing my recent interview with author K.P. Wee.

Please tell our readers a little about yourself and your new book.

I'm a teacher from Vancouver, Canada, who just loves writing about baseball. My latest book, Baseball Card Heroes: Stories from the Dugout and Beyond, is basically a journey through the careers of 16 players whose names first sparked my imagination as a young fan. What’s unique here is that these players were among the first whose baseball cards I collected. And the twist is that these weren't Topps baseball cards; they were Score cards from 1991-92, the ones with mini biographies of each player. I always loved Score cards for that reason: You had the team's logo and the player's photo on the front, and a writeup of that player on the back with another photo. 

So, all these years later, I reached out to these players, tracking them down using various ways, and these players included All-Stars like Howard Johnson, journeymen pitchers like Donn Pall and Greg A. Harris (both of whom were Yankees briefly), utility players like Scott Livingstone and Casey Candaele, and 20-game winners like Tom Browning and Mark Gubicza. I limited this to 16 players, the number of cards in a Score pack. I also added some thoughts about what life lessons we can learn from their stories.

What do you most enjoy about writing?

I like to tell the stories of the underdogs and the forgotten heroes. I think being able to get their stories out there puts a smile on my face. With baseball in particular, there are so many forgotten heroes and forgotten stories that I think it's neat to bring them up again and share them with readers. 

Are there any new projects you are working on?  

I'm currently working on a trivia book, but it's a challenge to gather all the information and pick the best questions among the ones I have written out. There's also a hockey book that I'm working on. It's a slow process to be sure, and it's basically plugging away at it when I have time. To be perfectly honest, it's a real struggle, and perhaps what I need is for fellow writers like you to check in with me periodically to push me.

I can do that. We're all in this together!

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

Outside of baseball, I would probably go with a hockey writer by the name of Todd Denault. I think his passion for hockey can be seen by the books he's written. One that I particularly like -- although as a fan I'm not happy with the outcome that year -- is Frozen in Time about the 1992-93 NHL season. My favorite team, the Boston Bruins, were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs despite a successful season, and Todd didn't cover that team in depth even though he covered several losing teams in great detail. I spoke with him about it and he gave me the logic behind his methods, which made sense to me after I heard his explanation. But that book stands out.

There's a lot of talk about baseball needing to be "fixed."  Is baseball broken?  If you were the Commissioner of Baseball what change(s) (if any) would you make to the current game?

 I think baseball is broken. I mean, you tune in to any game today, and you see all kinds of gambling ads, signs promoting sports books on outfield walls, announcers talking about odds for the money line and over/under. I just don't think that's right. It almost feels like people are watching baseball because they've got some parlay going on or they've got a few grand on some team's money line. I just think it's all wrong. It's like, to me, people are following the game for the wrong reasons. I've heard sports gamblers, for example, arguing among each other about something like, "Hey, why didn't they call it a hit when he got on first base! I need a hit from him for my parlay!" without understanding that on a fielder's choice, when the batter reaches first base but an out is recorded at second base, that's not a hit.

There are people saying games are rigged because their parlays didn't hit due to an outcome they didn't like. It's just wrong. Those are not baseball fans.

I think removing the DH in the National League isn't the right move. Interleague play, the way it is now, just doesn't seem right. The way that every team plays every other team now... that's another thing that doesn't seem right, either. There are a lot of things that are broken.

There needs to be a salary cap. There shouldn't be ghost runners. And on and on.

But for me growing up, I think the game was broken back in the 1990s when you had guys like Tom Glavine making a comment like, "The umpire should call a strike when I throw it a few inches off the plate because I've proven that I could do it consistently," while a rookie pitcher who threw the same pitch should not be given the same luxury because he's a rookie. I'm paraphrasing, but like, what? A strike is a strike no matter who throws it. A ball is a ball no matter who throws it. That one stands out to me. I'm still a fan of the game, but it's definitely broken.

I don't have the answers, but there are a lot of things that don't seem right.

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

That's a question that's been debated endlessly, with Yankees fans pushing for Thurman Munson and Don Mattingly for the Hall. That's a question that's been talked about to death. I don't want to get into that one, but I think what's worth discussing is how the Yankees have retired way too many numbers.

Maybe I'll throw you a curveball here and talk about a Yankee that deserves to be celebrated more: Ruben Sierra. Although he wasn't on any of the championships, Sierra was acquired in 1995 in exchange for Danny Tartabull, who simply couldn't get on the field. Tartabull ended up getting seven RBIs in Oakland after that trade, and Sierra got seven RBIs in one game alone to help the Yankees beat Milwaukee. With Sierra, the Yankees finished red-hot and clinched the AL Wild Card, where Ruben hit that big homer in the eighth in Game One to clinch that victory over Seattle. Next game, in the Jim Leyritz game, he was overshadowed despite hitting a homer off Andy Benes because Mattingly homered right after him. In the 12th inning, after Ken Griffey Jr. had homered off John Wetteland, Sierra hit a flyball to left that almost left the park. It scored the tying run but Bernie Williams was thrown out at home and the game continued on. But Sierra almost walked it off there. It's just unfortunate that he didn't get along with Joe Torre the next year and wasn't part of that championship run. It was just too bad with the timing. But the funny thing was I remember Sierra returned as a Yankee years later and was in the lineup as a cleanup hitter on Opening Day. That was great to see.

Please share anything else you'd like with our audience.

I would appreciate it if you pick up my latest book, Baseball Card Heroes.

Check out my other books on Amazon and other online bookstores. If you love baseball, I would think that some of my books on the sport would appeal to you. Thank you. 

Thank you, K.P. I'll see you on my podcast soon!