Tim Wendel

Where did the polite, almost cuddly country go that I grew up in the shadow of? (When I was a kid, Buffalo, N.Y., was already shrinking, so we often headed 90 minutes north to Toronto.)
In a bid to bring home more gold medals, the Canadians began the "Own the Podium" program. But it (more…)

Apologies, but I've been busy getting a new blog off the ground. It's in support of my new book, High Heat, and you can find it at HighHeatWendel.blogspot.com.
Also, don't forget the Buffalo Braves blog (Randy Smith Appreciation Day is coming up at Buffalo State) and the National Archive footage of the (more…)

OK, we cannot be too surprised to hear that Mark McGwire did performance-enhancing drugs, especially during The Great Home Race of 1998.
I covered that season for Baseball Weekly and got as caught as anybody in the hoopla. Still, I remembered how McGwire was a rookie with the Oakland Athletics. Certainly a big guy, but (more…)

My youth hockey teams always lost to the Canadian squads growing up. I mean we lost bad -- 10-0, 15-1. You get the picture. Even my younger brothers' teams, which were far better than mine, lost regularly to the big guns north of the border.
Now I love Canada. I married a Canadian.
Still, it was great to see (more…)

David Maraniss, author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered, just gave High Heat a big thumbs-up.
"High Heat is a great idea, brilliantly executed. Tim Wendel, one of my favorite baseball writers, delivers this fastball with a winning mix of science, biography, and mythology."
Pub date for HH is March 9, 2010.

A top editor in NYC sends along this advice for the new year: "The hardest thing, amidst all the end-of-the-world hysteria, is remembering to do great things. Great things are more necessary than ever, given all the bullshit we get fed every second across the internets machine."

OK, no more whining about looking for cover endorsements. The first cover blurb is in and they don't get any bigger than Ken Burns. Thanks to Ken for taking the time to read High Heat and then write, "Tim Wendel has done it again. Like a batter bending away from a curveball that cuts (more…)

I cannot think of anything more humbling than trolling for "blurbs" or cover endorsements for your book.
Yet that's where I find myself as we race toward the holidays and the new year.
With High Heat being printed (more…)

After watching Brad Lidge give away Game Four of the World Series, I got to thinking about Dennis Eckersley, the Hall of Fame closer for the Oakland A's.
I covered the ballclub when La Russa & Co. turned Eck into a closer, which he wasn't too happy about at first.
One evening, after Eckersley had (more…)

Intriguing look inside the editing process at Creative Nonfiction magazine. The editors there reveal what was added and what left out of three recent stories in the publication.