Books -- John Feinstein's 'Living on the Black'

Sports writer John Feinstein was online Monday, May 19 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss his new book, "Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember," a chronicle of the ups and downs pitchers Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina experienced during the 2007 season.

A transcript follows

Feinstein spent eleven years on the staff of "The Washington Post" as well as writing for "Sports Illustrated," "Inside Sports," and other sports magazines. He is the author of several best-selling books, including "A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour," "Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL," "Open" and "The Majors."

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John Feinstein: I'm ready to go.

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Baltimore: Is Mike Mussina a hall of famer?

John Feinstein: Right now, probably not. And he would tell you that if you asked him. I think he's likely to come up short of 300 wins, which automatically gets you in. Having said that, with the way pitching has changed, it maybe that 10 years from now, 250 wins is looked at the way 300 is now looked at, because so few pitchers are going to get there, and when that happens, Mike might very well get in. I hope he does.

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Charlottesville, Va.: One of the last times I visited Camden Yards (this has been a couple of years ago), Mussina pitched for the Yanks. After getting shelled and yanked mid-game, he headed for the dugout. Just above the dugout, a fan held up a sign (which just had to be in his line of vision) which said: "Hey Mike, how's that ring fit?" Brutal, but on the money. Does he regret signing with the Yanks? Is he stunned that he's never won a World Series there? What does he have to say about Angelos? Thanks.

John Feinstein: No, he doesn't regret signing with the Yankees, especially given the direction the Orioles have gone since he left. I think if there was any doubt in his mind about leaving, it went away during the 2000 season, when he was 4th in the league in ERA, and went 11-17. Obviously, he wishes he had a ring, but he can hardly be blamed, in my biased opinion, for Mariano Rivera not getting three outs in the 9th inning of Game 7 in 2001 (Remember, Mussina was the starting pitcher in the 1-0 game in Oakland that year when Derek Jeter made that famous play at the plate.) He also allowed Aaron Boone to hit his famous home run in 2003 by coming in to a 4-0 game in the 4th with men on 1st and 3rd and no one out and holding the Red Sox right there, allowing the Red Sox to rally. And, sadly for Mussina and the Yankees, he's the answer to a trivia question: Name the last Yankees pitcher to win a World Series game: Game 3, 2003.

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Washington, D.C.: I'm familiar with your books about golf, basketball and football, but is this your first major work about baseball? Can you talk a little about your history as a baseball fan -- favorite all-time players, what teams you rooted for growing up and who you follow now.

John Feinstein: This is my 2nd baseball book -- the first one was published in 1993 and was called "Play Ball." It was a look at the 1992 baseball season. I grew up in New York as a Mets fan and my first heroes were people like Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Tommie Agee and Cleon Jones.

Dating to that great '69 team. I saw 66 in Shea Stadium that year. I was a mediocre to decent high school baseball player. I still love nothing more than sitting in the park and keeping score of the game. To be honest, I don't follow teams so much as individuals, since I've had the chance to get to know a number of players and managers. For example, it would be impossible for me to hate any team Joe Torre manages.

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Washington, D.C.: How did you pick Glavine and Mussina as the pitchers you wanted to follow? And how much of a difference did the styles of the different leagues affect their performances?

John Feinstein: Good question. I was looking for two pitchers that met the following criteria: Guys who had been around a long time and would have a lot of stories to tell; Guys who were very good, clearly they fit that; Guys who were very smart and not overpowering, so they would understand the art of what they do; Two guys who would be willing to give me the time and access that I needed. Which, as you read the book, it will become apparent that they were both terrific about. The differences had more to do with 1) their personalities -- Tom is very outgoing, Mike an introvert but brutally honest about everything. And 2) The culture of the Mets vs. the culture of the Yankees, which could have been an entirely different book.

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New York, N.Y.: Given that both pitchers are still playing, how difficult was it to write a book that was highly informative about the pitchers' preparation and approaches to pitching, but that didn't give current batters too much information that they could use to their advantage?

John Feinstein: I don't think that was a problem, though it's a good question. I think nowadays, there are very few secrets in sports (ask Bill Belichick.) Especially in baseball. It would hardly come as a shock to anyone that Glavine relies on his change-up and that Mussina relies on changing speeds and that both rely on control. The book is more about the relationship between a pitcher and his catcher, his pitching coach, umpires (some of the umpire stuff really surprised me) rather than what signal a catcher uses to call for a fastball when there's a runner on 2nd base.

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I'm sure you'll agree: How refreshing is it, as an old-school baseball fan, to see the national pasttime return to our classical notions of the game: great pitching, smart base-running, small ball, and the timely 3-run homer.

Now that we know the game is relatively clean, it makes perfect sense for a team like the Orioles to not only be competitive, but exciting too. For the first time a decade, Orioles are thinking are starting to think big...

John Feinstein: Well, I always enjoy the so-called "throwback" aspects of the game. I just got through writing my washingtonpost.com column today on the death of double-headers and how much I hate that. But your point is well taken. It's nice to see leadoff hitters acting like leadoff hitters again and not hitting 52 home runs. I do wish we could find a way to make AL games last less than 3 hours every once and awhile. I saw a Nationals game last week that lasted 2:09, and it felt like the game should have been in the 5th inning when it ended. It was great.

(PS -- Right now, Dave Trembley would be the runaway manager of the year.)

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Montgomery Village, Md.: John

Thanks for another great book !

How worried should MLB be regarding the federal interviews of more than 100 players who tested positive for steroids in 2003? How oblivious can Ol' Bud remain ?

John Feinstein: I assume the question about Bud is rhetorical, since we know his capacity for being oblivious is endless. Clearly if these 103 names come out, and there are some that will surprise or shock us, it's just another black eye in a string of them for the sport. Having said that, it appears that almost nothing will keep baseball fans away from baseball, which always brings me back to something Tony LaRussa said to me years ago, "The game is better than all of us." I'm really glad you liked the book, thanks.

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baltimore, MD: First I love Moose; I grew up watching him pitch and loved every moment.

Are you aware of the fact that Tom Glavine criticized Mussina back in, I think 96' or 97' for signing a contract that gave the Orioles a perceived "home team discount"? is there any resentment to this day between Moose and Tom?

John Feinstein: I guess you haven't read the book yet, because that's in there -- you're right that Glavine was "critical" of Mussina when he resigned with the Orioles for only 3 years during the '97 season. Glavine told me he didn't mean to be critical, that he was simply making the comment that when a top pitcher like Mussina took a so-called "home town" discount that affected the salary bar for all other pitchers. Mussina did resent it at the time and brought it up to me during spring training last year, and, I think partly as a result of my asking Glavine about it, the two of them talked last season and cleared the air. I know this -- Mussina was really rooting for Glavine as he was closing in on 300, so I don't think there are any hard feelings left.

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Providence, RI: Mike Mussina experience in New York highlights the point that buying pitching does not seem to pay the same dividends as buying hitting (maybe Johan Santana will be an exception). Given how much pitching performance fluctuates from year-to-year. How many pitchers "deserve" 15 Million+/year relative to hitters?

John Feinstein: That's always the question when you sign a pitcher to a long-term contract. History shows that frequently a 5+ years contract does not pay dividends on the backend. Having said that, Brian Cashman told me last year he believes Mussina earned every dollar the the $88.5 million the team paid him for 6 years. Mussina was 15-7 the last year of the contract, which is why the Yankees signed him to a 2-year extension worth another $23 million. I wish I could get him to adopt me.

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Arlington, VA: How do the managers impact how their pitchers do? I thought that Torre is great at absorbing blame and treating his players like men. I don't know about Randolph but wonder if going back to Bobby Cox was a reason that Glavine left the Mets after last season/

John Feinstein: I agree with you, that there's no one better than Torre at finding a kind way to describe a bad outing. My favorite one is "he had good stuff, he just wasn't locating well." In English, that means he threw the ball down the middle and they crushed it. Or, as Glavine likes to call it "too many pitches that were white-on-white" -- the white baseball going over the white part of the plate.

Glavine and Randolph did have their differences. Randolph would be the first to admit to you that he doesn't really understand pitching that well -- which would explain why he made the silly comment that 300 wins wasn't that big a deal right after Glavine won his 299th last year. Having said that, Glavine's return to Atlanta is strictly about logistics -- that's where his wife and kids live, and given the chance to come home and finish his career in Atlanta, he was willing to take about $3 million less from the Braves than the Mets would have paid him.

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Alexandria, Va.: How did you approach Glavine and Mussina with the idea? Which of the pitchers was easier/better to work with?

John Feinstein: The way I approached them was direct -- I had known both for a number of years and told them I wanted to do a book on a year with two great pitchers. I tried to give them a sense of what the time involved would be. Tom, being Tom, said yes right away. Mike, being Mike, had about 100 questions about it. Having said that, they were both great to work with, even though they are completely different people, and it would be impossible for me to say that one was more fun than the other.

I liked the contrast between the two of them, also -- one lefty, on righty. One a college grad, one not. One a National Leaguer, one an American Leaguer. One a Met, one a Yankee. And one outgoing, one not outgoing. But both very smart.

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speaking of hall of fame: Is there is a magic stat for pitchers that buys them their ticket to the hall? (Besides the unreachable 400 wins)

I.e. even though Mussina won't make it to 300 wins, what if that line drive by Sandy Alomar was caught back in 97 and Mussina finished off that perfect game? Would he eligible then?

John Feinstein: Boy, there are so many "almosts" in Mike's career. Which we talked about in detail. That Alomar game was one of 5 times in his career that he took a no-hitter into the 8th inning, without getting a no-hitter, including 2001, when he came within one strike of a perfect game at Fenway. He also has more wins than any pitcher in history who has never one 20 games in a season. Which would not be the case if Armando Benitez had not blown a 2-1 lead in the 9th inning in Mike's last start in 1996. He's also been a very good postseason pitcher -- check out his '97 stats for example -- and yet has no World Series ring. Right now, though, I think Bert Blyleven, Jim Katt and Tommy John, who came up just shy of 300 wins and are not in the Hall of Fame.

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Arlington, VA: I haven't read the book yet (sorry, I'll head to a bookstore at lunch!), so this may be dealt with in the book, but does Glavine discuss at all the perception that he and Maddux got a lot of pitches off the plate when they were on the Braves? I used to get so angry watching umpires just follow them farther and farther outside until they were calling pitches 6-12 inches outside as strikes.

At least there was the karmic balance of that playoff game between the Braves and Maddux versus the Marlins and Livan Hernandez where Eric Gregg was giving Livo pitches a full foot off the plate. I think he ended up with 15 strikeouts.

John Feinstein: Absolutely, we discussed it at length. In fact, Tom willingly admitted that his career changed when Questech came into existence and umpires began getting graded on their calls. For a long time, what you're talking about was known in baseball as the Glavine-Maddux strike. It was sort of like the Ted Williams ball -- the theory that if Williams took a pitch, because his eye was so good, it had to be a ball. With Glavine and Maddux, because their control was so good, the theory was that if they threw a pitch to a spot, it must be a strike. In large part7, because of Questech, Glavine had to reinvent himself in 2005 by learning to pitch inside. Since then, his record is 44-23. Pretty good adjustment I would say.

Hope you enjoy the book.

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Arlington, VA: Given their general makeup - smart pitchers who won big with not necessarily overpowering stuff - do you see either or both of them becoming pitching coaches? They clearly have thought a lot about pitching, but I could see them being somewhat bored with coaching (Mussina) or just ready to move on after they are done.

John Feinstein: Both could easily be pitching coaches, you're 100-percent right. They love to talk pitching and counsel younger pitchers (it was really funny watching Glavine scream at Mike Pelphrey for not knowing what to do with a scuffed ball.) But both want to get off the road when they retire because they have young children. I see Glavine doing some TV with limited travel, and then perhaps getting into the front office, or maybe managing once his kids are grown. I see Mussina heading home Montoursville and pretty much hanging out, at least until his kids are out of high school. When he and Glavine say they want to be with their families, unlike Michael Jordan, they mean it.

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"The game is better than all of us": Thank you for that quote, I love it and shall use it tonight

when I beg my husband to watch my wretched Giants

faces the Rockies...

No real question here, just a general thanks and to tell you

that based on the first couple questions in this chat (and

listening to you on Kornheiser) that I plan to buy the book

on my lunch break.

I read "Play Ball" three years after you wrote it and couldn't

put it down. I also read "Season on the Brink" and for

some reason, pay attention to golf more because of you.

Your answers in chats are well thought out and

interesting.

Are you really as cantankerous as you sometimes sound

on the radio-- or is that just my radio perception?

John Feinstein: Thanks Mom! I don't think of myself as "cantankerous" -- perhaps combative at times. I thank you very much for all those kind words -- I loved writing "Play Ball" and also enjoyed working on this book.

And since you are clearly a baseball fan if you're going to stay up to watch Giants-Rockies, I really hope you enjoy this book.

Who is Kornheiser?

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Washington, DC: Were there any other pitchers on your "list" that you would have liked to have included in this book aside from Mussina and Glavine?

Smoltz, Schilling, Pedro, Randy Johnson, Maddox...

I wonder if we'll ever see pitcher like these guys ever again as the role of starting pitcher continues to decline in the modern game.

John Feinstein: Your last point is a very good one, one both Tom and Mike address in the book. With all the focus on pitch counts, and relievers with specific roles who are paid millions to pitch the 7th, 8th, 9th, the role of starting pitching really has changed.

Years ago, I thought of David Cone, but he was doing a book with Roger Angel. Glavine and Mussina were my first choices for 2007, but I did consider some of the people you mentioned, most notably Smoltz, Maddox and Jaime Moyer.

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Baltimore: Have you ever considered writing a book about the NHL? There are a lot of interesting characters and I think it fits your style perfectly

John Feinstein: Yes, and I know what the title would be -- "Season on the Rink"

I'm a big hockey fan, grew up in the blue seats in Madison Square Garden, and I'm tremendously interested in the league's revival right now with Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. I would love to do a hockey book at some point.

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Alexandria, Va.: In your research did you uncover any more perspective on Mussina and his past with the Orioles. I was a huge Moose fan, but never really understood/bought how things went so south?

John Feinstein: Well, basically what happened is that Mike was ready to sign a contract before the start of the 2000 season, for 5 years and $60 million, which, believe it or not, was under the going rate for pitchers of his caliber at the time.

Peter Angelos refused to approve the deal, and Mike decided to file for free agency at the end of that season. Once he did, Joe Torre called him instantly to tell him how much the Yankees would love to have him, and to tell him not to believe the stories he heard about living in New York.

That, combined with $88 million, made his decision fairly easy.

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Charlottesville, Va.: What was your favorite submission for the Name Junior's New Restaurant contest George Solomon ran in The Post a few weeks ago? Did he spill the beans on the restaurant opening when he shouldn't have? Good luck with it.

John Feinstein: Thanks for the good wishes. I can't remember one that stood out, because, to be honest, we had already decided to name the restaurant after my mother. When she got her PhD in music, she did not want anyone to call her "doctor" because she thought that PhDs who called themselves doctor were pretentious. So, naturally, my brother and me called her Doc, so the name we're hoping for is "Doc's of Potomac."

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Washington, D.C.: I appreciated the book's backstory behind Mussina's demotion last year, which we didn't really get to hear about at the time other than "Mussina refused to talk to the media." It seems like you really pushed them to discuss things that might have been difficult to talk about at the time, which made the book a very interesting read.

That said, it seems like the discussion of steroids was really glossed over in the book. Did you push them to discuss it more and meet with resistance, or did you back off because it wasn't the primary topic of the book? Or some combination?

John Feinstein: First, thanks for the comments about Mussina being removed from the rotation and other topics. Mike and Tom were both very good about subjects like those, including Tom discussing in great detail his final day

It wasn't so much that I didn't push as there wasn't that much the players could say about specific names without fear of a lawsuit. They did both talk willingly about the general steroid epidemic in the game, and, when the Mitchell Report came out, I did talk to both of them as you can see at the end of the book. I think the most telling comment was Glavine saying "I was more surprised by some of the names not in the report than the names that were in the report."

In fact, both of them pionted out to me that I was probably naive to think there were more hitters using steroids than pitchers, and I think the report validates that. I think they both saw dealing with steroid-users as just another part of the game they had to deal with. And I think both knew there were guys on their teams hitting home runs when they were pitching.

Mussina, by the way, thinks there should be blood testing to try and uncover HGH users.

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baltimore, md: did you ever discuss with Mike the brawl that he was involved in with the Mariners and Norm Charlton (96?)? Wow, that was a good one and it cost Moose a few starts if I remember correctly. Perhaps he would have won 20 that year if not for those missed starts. And what about the line drive off his face? that cost him 20 wins too b/c of the time on the DL.

John Feinstein: Yes -- you're certainly right about the fight in '96, because as I said before, he came up one Armando Benetiz gopherball short of winning 20.

The '99 incident with Sandy Alomar, who also broke up his no-hitter in in '97, was far more traumatic because even though he came back very quickly, Mike said he was gunshy on the mound the rest of the year and didn't pitch nearly as well as a result. That was one of the scary things I've ever seen in baseball. It took until Spring Training the next season for him to have that distance from it and put it behind him.

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Arlington, VA: Off topic but I know you will have an informed opinion about this so here goes.

Do you think Coach K has reached the same point that Bobby Knight did (and most successful coaches do) when he won't be competing for Championships anymore? And what do you think Duke's plan of succession is? Will they end up in the same boat IU, UNC, et al did and have multiple changes right after the legend leaves?

Thanks.

John Feinstein: If Duke doesn't get better in the next year or two, I don' t think you'll see Mike hanging around because he's too competitive to deal with relative mediocrity.

I think if Johnny Dawkins succeeds at Stanford, he would be the natural successor to Mike. I don't see an Indiana situation occurring because Mike isn't liable to grab a student or throw a potted plant at a secretary anytime soon. But you never know when a legend leaves how the next guy will do. I've always found it ironic that Bill Guthridge when to two Final Fours in three years following Dean Smith, and everyone at North Carolina couldn't wait for him to leave. You have to feel for Mike though, he's a life-long Cubs fan.

Thanks everyone, I hope people buy the book and enjoy it for Father's Day.

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