The World Series in the Modern Age

Ok. So the World Series begins. Here in Chicago it is cold. It snowed yesterday. And we are clearly in an early winter mode though it might break again. But the fact that baseball is being played still is nothing short of amazing. Baseball belongs to warm days and a slow summer pace. The ball game playing somewhere on a radio is part of the summer. Time does slow down in summer and we look to our National Past Time to take the measure of the hot months.

In Chicago it is Wrigley Field that takes you back to a time when baseball was the sport. It is an old ivy covered stadium that is now finally going to be retrofitted. But it still has that old tang  of summer hot dogs, beer, peanuts. The game simply cant be played when it is cold out and we don't have that association. When I was researching for The Pitcher I was stuck by how many players were farm kids and how many players hated winters. The off season was just hell then.

But now we have the series and football is in full swing. The two sports are in two different universes. Football is a gladiator sport played under any condition. Baseball seems almost quaint in comparison. Of course it is not quaint. It is a hard fought battle that will be played out over the next two weeks. With football under siege now because so many players are getting their brains scrambled baseball might be the sport we are left with.

I guess that would be one way to make sure The World Series is the only game in town.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher

The Age of Free Downloads and Pastry

I went into a Starbucks and the green smocked happy meal man asked me if I wanted a pastry for free. In fact I could have as many pastries as I wanted. And so I took three and sat down. When I went back for my coffee he explained they had to get rid of all the pastries by the end of the day. New vendor he explained further. Some outfit out of San Fran was going to be coming to all the Starbucks so they were priming the market with freebies.

In publishing free is the new strategy. My own novel The Pitcher is being offered for a week free on Amazon on August 24th. http://www.amazon.com/The-Pitcher-ebook/dp/B00DMOO3RM/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=So if you have a Kindle go get your free copy. The theory is that it is better to give away something in the hopes that more will come and pay. This is the hope. Jay Z gave away a million copies of his latest single. Publishers routinely offer up free books. Starbucks gives away pastries. What is going on?

The age of the internet has become such a market equalizer that nobody knows how to market anymore. You didn't have to give away something if you had a lock on the market. Before kindles you either paid the price of a book or you didn't. And before the digital age you either bought the CD or you didn't. But all that left with the LCD or leveling effect of the internet on the market. The only chance now is to "catch." To grab hold and go viral and then you can make your money.

So on August 24th go to Amazon and download your copy of The Pitcher. I would suggest downloading while in a Starbucks where you can enjoy a pastry. For free. What a country.

Free download of The Pitcher August 24