Hey, everybody, I'm Justin McGuire, and this is Baseball by the Book, the only podcast that matters.

That's right, folks, you're once again listening to Baseball by the Book, the podcast in which we talk to authors of baseball books past and present.

Well, folks, today the great Peter Golanbach returns to the podcast.

You may recall he was previously on to talk about the

classic The Bronx Zoo, which he co-wrote with Sparky Lyle back in the 1970s. Today he's here to talk

about his brand new book. It's called Whispers of the Gods, Tales from Baseball's Golden Age,

told by the men who played it. Let's get right to it.

Hi, Peter. Welcome back to baseball by the book. Well, thank you so much, Justin.

This book, you advertise it as kind of a sequel to the glory of their times, which is a book that

has been referenced numerous times on this podcast. A lot of authors bring it up as their favorite book or a book that inspired them in some way.

I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the first time that you encountered the glory of

their times and what you thought about it.

When I was a junior at Dartmouth College, I was the sports editor of the Dartmouth Daily

Newspick.

A book arrived one day for me, and I opened it up,

and it was a book called The Glory of Their Times by Larry Ritter. And in it, I was amazed to see

were interviews with players who had played with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Shulis, Joe Jackson, Lou Gehrig,

Dizzy Dean. I was just enthralled.

Absolutely enthralled. And I must do over the years read that book 10 or 15 times because I absolutely consider it the Bible of baseball. And so when I lived in Englewood, New Jersey,

Jim Bouton lived there too, and he and I were very,

very close. I would babysit for his children, his little children. We would race our cars on the

streets and never could beat him. Play catch a lot. We were very close. And about three years ago,

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