Title
Town
is the result of reviewing literally hundreds of sports essays
that have appeared on the In My Backpack web
site over the years.
The
process in general was simple enough... selecting material with
a foundation that for the most part avoided being dated (though
almost all needed some attention), investing time and effort in
proofreading and editing and updating and rewriting, and ultimately
bringing some of the best moments to date from the sports history
of the Backpack into a single edition.
It’s
easy to look at a piece that focuses on some sort of historical
event, such as a football game or baseball season, and in many
ways see it lose its impact. Dozens upon dozens upon more baseball
season previews and weekly football picks have been brought to
the 'ville. Tremendous fun at the time… great to look over again
a few years later... not right for this collection. They are trapped
in time, chained to their moment in history.
There
are other essays (and even just passages within an essay) -- finding
my uncle’s copy of The Open Man, a book by Dave DeBusschere…
recalling an observation attempting to define what it means to
be great… and looking over the teams winning championships since
the first Super Bowl -- where most elements work as well today
as they did when first posted.
The
majority of material in this collection arrived at In My Backpack
between 2003 and 2016. Together it is an assortment that focuses
heavily on baseball and football, with basketball, soccer and
other topics. There are also a few brand new essays coming exclusively
to these pages.
In
most cases, each essay has been thoroughly ripped apart from the
original form and then reassembled into something almost new while
maintaining the original spirit. For those that have been posted
on thie site previously over the years, they never looked like
this.
Title
Town (and other tangents) was released on April 18, 2017.
