With home run derbies ascending to prominence during the 2021 and 2022 baseball seasons, the sport's most celebrated competition takes center stage in Home Runs: Tales of Tonks, Taters, Contests and Derbies. Set for a March 2023 release from August Publications, Home Runs begins with the story of the most famous home run derby competition-TV's Home Run Derby-and focuses on memorable derbies and competitions through the years.
Home Runs: Tales of Tonks, Taters, Contests and Derbies focuses on three big stories:
• The creation of the lodestone of all derbies: television's Home Run Derby, where legends like Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Duke Snider, Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killebrew, and Ernie Banks competed in a head-to-head competition.
• The first full accounting of a post-1961 North Carolina derby tour by Roger Maris, Harmon Killebrew, and Jim Gentile. Arranged by Wilson Tobs owner Matt Boykin, the tour hit Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilson, and Durham, with the three sluggers competing on the field and acting as ambassadors for the game off the field. Sharing their memories of the tour: Gentile and Jack McKeon, the manager of the Tobs in 1961 who pitched to the three participants. The chapter is highlighted by previously unpublished photos of the competition.
• The evolution of MLB's Home Run Derby, held in conjunction with the annual All-Star Game. While with the San Diego Padres, Strasberg had an inside view of how the event was created and evolved, beginning with the 1978 All-Star Game Workout (a precursor of sorts to the Home Run Derby), running through several Padres Old Timers games featuring notable derbies (including a memorable 1980 event with former teammates Henry Aaron and Warren Spahn) and culminating with the 1992 Home Run Derby, won by Mark McGuire in convincing fashion.
