Jan Sumner

Jan Sumner was born in Independence, Kansas but has lived in Denver, Colorado most of his life. He began his writing career in 2000 after completing six years of throwing batting practice for the Colorado Rockies. That book, Fat Pitch – My Six Seasons with the Colorado Rockies, was the beginning of what has turned out to be a wonderful and exhilarating writing career. Fat Pitch takes you behind the scenes of a Major League team from its inception through the first five years at Coors Field. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

He was self employed most of his adult life as owner of Colorado Inspection Service, which was his first venture into the world of entrepreneurship some 40 years ago. He has been a private investigator for a large law firm and was a sports agent in baseball and hockey. He also had his own business working with pitchers called The Real Strike Zone for 23 years.

He has written nine books, two of which received special recognition. He was honored to present his book Legacy of a Monarch – an American Journey at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2006 and his latest book Independence, Mantle and Miss Able was acknowledged by the Smithsonian in 2015 as part of their Home Town Team project and is also in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His other books are If You Come to a Bridge – You’ve Gone too Far, Seams, Jack Zane – Evil at Storm Lake (formerly Death Camass), Eli Cooper – a Saga of the Old West and Veto.

All Jan’s books can be found on his website: Jansumner.com

Once Upon a Time in Baseball - My Pastime Summers

Years aft er his baseball career was derailed by a violent accident, our

national pastime reappeared in his life – and has remained to this day.

What follows is his extraordinary journey – baseball has taken him

on a ride from the little leagues to the major leagues, and all stops in

between. Jan’s memoir, Once Upon a Time in Baseball: My Pastime

Summers, is a nostalgic look back at the golden age of baseball through

the eyes of a young boy growing up in the 1950s, to a man in his fifties

throwing batting practice for the newest entry in MLB, the 1993

Colorado Rockies.

Th e book starts on the playground when, as a passionate fan, Jan was

learning to play the game, and trading baseball cards, including the

time he literally gave away one of the most valuable cards of all time. In

high school, college and semi-pro, he discovered his talent as a pitcher,

throwing a number of no-hitters. His dream was coming true – in the

game he loved so much, and was on track for what he hoped would be

a career in the big leagues. Then the summer following his sophomore

year in college he was almost killed in a car wreck which ended his

major-league dreams, or so he thought. Decades later he found himself

back on the hill, throwing batting practice for the Rockies for six

years, including throwing at Dodger Stadium and Wrigley Field, and

culminating in the honor of presenting his book, Legacy of a Monarch

– an American Journey, the biography of an all-star shortstop for the

Kansas City Monarchs, at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown

in 2006.

Once Upon a Time in Baseball is a look back at the glory days of

baseball, when it was sports king in America. Everyone who lived

and loved the game back then will find this story brings back longing

memories of days gone by.

FAT PITCH

This is a nostalgic, humorous and insightful look at not only the beginning of the Colorado Rockies but a history of their transition from Mile High Stadium to Coors Field. It's a book any baseball fan will enjoy because it not only deals with the Rockies but how and what batting practice is all about and the funny and strange things that can take place during BP. I was also fortunate enough to get to go on the road with them and throw at Wrigley Field and get involved with presenting Sammy Sosa with a painting by well known sports artist, Malcom Farley, who I happened to be representing at the time in 1998, when Sosa broke the homerun record. I then got to go to Dodger Stadium and throw off the same mound my favorite pitcher of all time, Sandy Koufax, threw off of. I think you'll find an inside look at those ballparks and locker rooms interesting. What a journey, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Jack Zane - Evil at Storm Lake

I was then completely hooked on writing and followed up Fat Pitch with a murder mystery, Jack Zane - Evil at Storm Lake. This is a dark tale about a serial killer's reach from the grave, haunting lives twenty years after his death.

Legacy of a Monarch an American Journey

This was my next book and is the biography of Byron "Mex" Johnson, an All-Star Negro League baseball player of the 1930s -1940s and the grandson of a slave. It is a history of not only a black baseball player, but of an African-American's journey through American history. With a forward by President Bill Clinton and an introduction by Don Baylor, Legacy of a Monarch was honored and inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, June 10th 2006. As the author, getting to present this book at the HOF in front of Byron's family, as well as my own, was a privilege and experience I will always hold dear.

Seams

I've always loved the history and tradition of baseball having grown up watching my two favorite players, Sandy Koufax and Willie Mays in their prime. The evolution of the game has certainly been interesting, controversial and exhilarating, but down through the years the game as stayed remarkably the same, throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball.

Given baseball's extraordinary history which goes hand in hand with American history I undertook a story line based on old time baseball, starting in 1915, which transitions into the modern era centered around one family's love of the game, set in the small rural town of Washington, Missouri.

It's the account of one man's improbable journey from local pitching guru to the game's biggest stage - the World Series. Along the way he must deal with the Great Depression, WWII, personal setback, murder and death. Some of the story is personal for me and my family while the majority comes from my love of the game and all its far reaching implications felt by any and all who have an unwavering passion for it.

If you have a keen interest in baseball, baseball history, American history and baseball characters from times gone by, then this is the book for you.

Eli Cooper - A Saga of the Old West

This was absolutely the most fun I ever had writing a book. I've always loved westerns and this was a chance to demonstrate that passion. The post Civil War west was wild and untamed. Eli Cooper grew up at such a time in western Kansas. After watching his father gunned down at a young age, he vows to take revenge on the killers. It's a passage from youth to manhood as an unwitting gunslinger, trapped between longing and certainty, with an outcome he never saw coming.

If You Come To a Bridge - You've Gone Too Far

I've owned my own insurance inspection business for 37 years. This book is a compilation of humorous, interesting and hard to believe tales from all those years of conducting insurance inspections on unsuspecting, not to speak of an incredible array of businesses. Whoever said, "You can't make this stuff up," had this adventure in mind.

Veto

This is my latest novel. It's a political murder mystery set against the backdrop of intrigue and intolerance in Chicago, 1960. With the Presidential candidacy at stake, candidate, Cornell Eastman, becomes entangled in deception and assassination. The political maneuvering and treachery could well cost him a chance at the White House. The suspicious death of his closest confidant and aide takes Eastman on an unwanted and devastating journey.

I have also been honored to co-author and published Face to Face With Sports Legends by Joe Cullinane, When Pro Football Was Fun by Vic Boccard, and The Mental Side of Hitting by Mike Epstein.