New book written by Alyssa Milano "Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic"

I already pre-ordered the book from Target (Amazon).

http://www.amazon.com/Safe-Home-Conf.../dp/0061625108

Perhaps she and Winnie Cooper can get together and hammer out a sabremetrics book!

:)

Please. No. MLB. Signature. Wear.

Shouldn't a Milano book be titled "How To Get To First Base" or "Why I like A Big Bat"?

Its safe to say this one will not pull in any pulitzer prize.

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Originally Posted by Stephenk29

Its safe to say this one will not pull in any pulitzer prize.

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Not from you, maybe. I've already got my nomination ready.

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Originally Posted by camisadelgolf

Not from you, maybe. I've already got my nomination ready.

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Don't judge a book by its cover now:D

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Originally Posted by stephenk29

don't judge a book by its cover now:d

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IT HAS PAGES, TOO?!?!?!?!
:D
k

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Originally Posted by camisadelgolf

IT HAS PAGES, TOO?!?!?!?!
:D
k

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I hope there's some pictures

Q.& A.: Alyssa Milano
By Benjamin Hoffman
Alyssa Milano

When first told that Alyssa Milano, the actress, was writing a book about baseball, I couldn’t help but be somewhat skeptical as I knew of her as a baseball fan, but more as someone who had dated some baseball players and worked on a baseball clothing line.

My concerns about her book, “Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic” were immediately addressed by Joe Torre, the Dodgers manager, who wrote the book’s foreword. Torre talks about first encountering Milano as manager of the Dodgers and finding out firsthand that she doesn’t just go to games, she goes to every game. She knows baseball and means business.

Throughout the book she doesn’t hide from the fact that she’s dated baseball players, but she doesn’t let it dominate the story as she tackles issues of the game, like how it can help keep a family together, the steroids problem and how to overcome it, why female fans should be interested and, possibly more important, how baseball should be more interested in its female fans.

While largely written for a female audience that may not be as informed about the game as she is, Milano’s viewpoints are not those of the pink-hatted fan who doesn’t love the game. In fact, she created a clothing line sold by Major League Baseball, called Touch, specifically for female fans who refuse to wear pink or any other nonteam colors.

She is also a good sport, and agreed to answer some questions via e-mail messages, and she once again proved she knows what she’s talking about.
Question

I grew up in the Oakland suburbs and the day before my 10th birthday Kirk Gibson hit a home run that broke my heart thoroughly enough that even a pounding of the Giants in the 1989 World Series hardly made up for it. Will you now, as a Dodger fan, stand up and apologize for that home run?
Answer

Ummmm. I can’t apologize for that home run because it is one of my favorite moments as a Dodgers fan. I’m sorry it made you feel bad though.
Question

From Cal Ripken to Bucky Dent to Ty Cobb to Josh Hamilton, you talk a lot about the roles baseball players play as heroes and villains for the fans. How much has that particular aspect lessened for you as you’ve gotten to know some of the players?
Answer

Oddly enough, the baseball ‘heroes’ that I have been lucky enough to meet have lived up to my expectations.

Question

I would likely be counted among those with a ’slide rule for a heart’ as you put it, but I can’t help but notice that your use of numbers is a little beyond that of a casual watcher. You even make a reference to Baseball Prospectus. Could a full-fledged switch to discussing VORP and ERA+ be that far behind?
Answer

Stranger things have happened. The numbers are part of the game. I accept that. I like the numbers but I also like when the unexpected happens regardless of the numbers. That’s when something magical happens.
Question

Memoirs have recently been under attack by the news media with inaccuracies found in books by James Frey, Herman Rosenblatt and others. With that in mind, I wanted to clear up the one major problem found in your book. In regards to a statement on Page 8, Jackie Robinson’s position on the Dodgers was?
Answer

Branch Rickey discovered Robinson when he was playing shortstop for the Monarchs. Jackie played first base his rookie year and then moved to second for the rest of his career. Total brain fart by not only me, but the publishing professionals that took 20 passes looking specifically for my brain farts. I apologize. Profusely. If I were to write that sentence today it would have read ‘… no other team could have done what his team did, which was to hire a black shortstop as its first baseman and then second baseman, and end segregation in baseball.’
Question

One of the more intriguing sections of the book was your stance on performance-enhancing drugs where you seem to have a unique perspective as someone who sees what your fellow actors in Hollywood are willing to do to ’stay in the game.’ Using the device you occasionally used of if you were commissioner for a day how would you go about creating a positive change regarding doping in the sport?
Answer

I would simply apologize for the steroid era and enforce the strictest drug policy ever. Cheating in baseball has gone on through the ages. It has overcome cheating scandals before. I think it will come back from this as well, but someone has to take responsibility for letting it get to this point for me to truly move on as a fan.
Question

I saw firsthand what you meant about female fans and loyalty when Nick Swisher, the player I had focused my wife’s attention on as a cancer activist and good guy, got traded and then slowly watched her get sad and then somewhat angry at the organization. Any tips for keeping relatively new fans interested when they’re thrown a curve like that?
Answer

Bring them to the ballpark as much as possible. Nothing beats going to a park to watch a ballgame. If you let that experience become part of your fandom, it makes it easier to brush yourself off and move on when your guy is traded.
Question

If a situation erupts this season between Manny Ramirez and the writer of your book’s foreword, Joe Torre, do you volunteer to get involved and settle the beef?
Answer

If they need me, I’m here. But Manny better watch out because Torre can do no wrong in my eyes.
Question

If a team, in the spirit of 1970s promotion, were to hold a huge burning of pink hats and jerseys, would you attend? Should they somehow involve 10-cent beer?
Answer

I may have to organize the ‘pink’ burning myself. My mother would be so proud.
Question

In the spirit of more women getting involved in baseball, I seem to remember your character Samantha on ‘Who’s the Boss?’ auditioning to call baseball games in college, with your television father Tony stealing the job out from under you with anecdotes from his days as a player. Do you feel like Sam would have gone on to a broadcasting career under different circumstances?
Answer

Yes. And under different circumstances Tony and Angela would have gotten married. [ed note: I was shocked to hear that Tony and Angela were never married. I had somehow blocked the ambiguous ending of the show leaving me to wonder what other key plot points to my favorite childhood shows I may have blocked.]
Question

As a female Dodger fan, how proud are you to have Kim Ng, the highest-ranking woman in baseball, helping build your favorite team?
Answer

There are a lot of reasons to be proud to be a female Dodgers fan. Kim Ng is one of the greatest baseball minds in the sport today AND we have the first female physical therapist in M.L.B., Sue Falsone.

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...alyssa-milano/

Milano reads Baseball Prospectus and knows what VORP is? :luvu::luvu:

I wonder if she plays The Show 09 and I can get a game in?