Phillip Martin Before Bobby Shane Grew a Mustache and Became Evil Until he hurt himself, my father was an infielder. Not anyone whose name you would recognize, unless you really know your baseball. An infielder for Cleveland, back in the …

Vlog 8-4-18 at 5.53 AM from Philip Martin on Vimeo.

  A dozen years ago I wrote about a four-volume biography of Adrian Constantine “Cap” Anson, a 19th-century baseball player some believe is the most important figure ever — bigger than Babe Ruth or Jackie Robinson. Anson was not only …

Used to be a seeker, used to be a dreamer Now I guess I been woke Let in on the cosmic joke I’m trying to fix the things I broke You can be an unbeliever or have faith in the …

Silver City by Jeff Guinn Putnam, 376 pages, $27 Reviewed by Karen Martin for blood,dirt & angels As a former books editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Jeff Guinn knows what works when it comes to writing a crowd-pleasing novel. …

Across the years and distances words spent and irrevocable appear behind the iPhone glass that hums softly in my pocket.   And what am I to say to them? But that things have turned out all right. We both survived …

Do not mistake this god deep silence for disapproval or conceit. Or American arrogance, whatever you take that to be: I have come from Oklahoma with a banjo on my knee. Some people push the words out fast. They spit …

 I wrote this back in 1999. Near the end of the 1960s, a Gallup poll designed to sound the depths of American cynicism turned up the interesting factoid that there was but one American who could still be considered an …