The Best of Baseball Matters 2022

Similar to the first two editions, this book features a selection of stories written over the past year. While the first two anthologies featured a number of writers and covered a variety of topics – politics, food, poetry, sports, travel, economics, and business -- this is the first one written strictly by Dennis Richardson and his good friend and former newspaper colleague Randy Coppersmith, and devoted entirely to baseball.

The authors cover a variety of baseball topics concerning the 2022 season and beyond. Some are a little quirky, like great nicknames throughout the game’s long and colorful history, rooting for the home team as it ends a 95-year championship drought, the excitement of Opening Day, and a youthful pursuit of a Stan Musial baseball trading card. Others are more substantive, such as the greatness of New York Yankees’ slugger Aaron Judge, the appeal of day baseball, the possibility of Major League Baseball returning to Montreal, minor-league players struggling with low pay, cracking down on pitchers illegally doctoring baseballs, and rule changes the league should consider.

Baseball fans tend to have strong feelings about their teams, their players, and the game. Our intent with this book is not necessarily to sway those opinions, but hopefully to educate, entertain, and provide food for thought.
Why a book just about baseball? Given their love for the game, they long have been intrigued with the idea of writing such a book. And when readers of the first two Words Matter books requested that they write more stories about baseball, Randy and Dennis were all too happy to oblige.