Dennis Gaub

Fragile existence

Here’s another piece of content that probably will be included in my next book, about how Billings got a professional baseball team in 1948 and the key role played by Bob Cobb, the owner of the famed Brown Derby restaurants in Los Angeles and a onetime Billings boy who

The Bob Cobb Story-Part 5

Note: My next book, No. 6, may focus on Bob Cobb, the owner of the legendary Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood and a Billings man who played a key role in the city getting a professional baseball team 78 years ago. I’ve written a chunk of text for a

The Bob Cobb story-Part 4

Note: My next book, No. 6, may focus on Bob Cobb, the owner of the legendary Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood and a Billings man who played a key role in the city getting a professional baseball team 78 years ago. I’ve written a chunk of text for a

The Bob Cobb story-Part 3

Note: My next book, No. 6, may focus on Bob Cobb, the owner of the legendary Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood and a Billings man who played a key role in the city getting a professional baseball team 78 years ago. I’ve written a chunk of text for a

The Bob Cobb story-Part 2

Note: My next book, No. 6, may focus on Bob Cobb, the owner of the legendary Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood and a Billings man who played a key role in the city getting a professional baseball team 78 years ago. I’ve written a chunk of text for a

The Bob Cobb story-Part 1

Note: My next book, No. 6, may focus on Bob Cobb, the owner of the legendary Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood and a Billings man who played a key role in the city getting a professional baseball team 78 years ago. I’ve written a chunk of text for a

How Billings got professional baseball

Did you know that the man who owned the famed Brown Derby restaurants in Hollywood and the surrounding Los Angeles area was the major force behind Billings getting a pro baseball team 78 years ago? That was Bob Cobb, a Billings man who moved to the LA area with his

1969: a rough restart for the Billings Mustangs

A last-place finish in the seven-team Pioneer League. Attendance at Cobb Field that rarely topped 900 spectators. A skunk that roamed the ball field, giving onlookers a literal stinky time. A team manager frustrated enough by his team’s play that he snubbed a young sportswriter’s request

Another encounter with Babe Ruth in Billings in 1947

The boss of a Billings car dealership asked his youthful sales manager to come into the top man’s office on August 19, 1947. Sure hope I haven’t messed something up, 19-year-old Ken Davenport might have thought to himself before his chat with Mickey Cochrane, owner of

Babe Ruth in Billings, and a boy’s thrill

When I was researching and then writing my latest book, the biography of star Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dave McNally, I came across several excellent stories that just didn’t fit in that work. One of the best, which I want to share, involves the time in the late 1940s when

Update on a great book marketing trip

Time to let you know what I’m up to. We’re (my wife and I) visiting family in Salt Lake City as part of a book marketing trip that started on Easter Sunday. That afternoon, we drove our motor home from Billings to Bozeman for an author event focused

Two events coming up soon

Exciting news: I’ve got two more events scheduled for my latest book, Dave McNally: The Montanan Who Revolutionized Baseball. First, I’ll be in Bozeman, Montana, on Saturday, March 14, for an event at the Country Bookshelf on Main Street. Hoping to see lots of my former colleagues and

Good things just keep happening ...

What a ride! Thanks to my publisher, Sunbury Press, I connected with a fine, Boston-based podcaster, Nicole Asselin, whose podcast is called Baseball, Books, and Banter. We had a 45-minute or so Zoom session Sunday afternoon, and it resulted in a terrific episode that she released today (December

Book launch video now live

The video of the November 23, 2025, book launch at This House of Books in downtown Billings is now on YouTube. Thanks to my son, Julian Gaub, for using my phone to grab footage. Here it is: https://youtu.be/zp7rHg8FxXM Also, a contact named John Eisenberg, who is a

More great publicity!

Russ Reisinger, anchor for Billings CBS affiliate KTVQ, interviewed me about my McNally biography last week. His piece appeared tonight. Take your pick. Here’s what I recorded with my phone and then uploaded to my YouTube channel (“Fight for Fairness”): Or this, from the station’s website: Super Senior:

Correction for YouTube channel

I have two YouTube channels and originally uploaded to the wrong one. This is correct.

Latest video in my YouTube channel

For various reasons, I got behind a bit in adding to my YouTube channel about Dave McNally’s fight for fairness. The newest video is now live.

Book launch-correction on date

I got my dates mixed up. The book launch will be on Sunday, November 23, 2-4 p.m., at This House of Books. NOT November 19. Please bear with me. I’ve always been a bit absent-minded, and when I was a newspaper reporter, I was very thankful

Book launch!

Exciting news! Working with This House of Books in Billings, I’ve set up the book launch date: Sunday, November 23, 2-4 p.m. at the store on North 29th Street. For people in Billings, or those who drive to Billings for shopping, health care, etc., you can stop

Bonus content for early readers

Greetings! I’m trying to encourage early readership of my McNally biography, so I’ve got an offer for you. If you buy a copy of the book in the next five weeks, by Friday, November 21, I’ll email you two PDF files with extra content having to do

Book now out!

Dave McNally: The Montanan Who Revolutionized Baseball is now in print! I got the word over the weekend from my publisher, Pennsylvania-based Sunbury Press, which you can find and order at https://www.sunburypress.com/collections/baseball/products/dave-mcnally?variant=43700231635037 What’s next? First, a book launch

Latest YouTube episode

Here's the latest episode on my YouTube channel, "Struggle for Fairness," focused on the life story 0f Dave McNally. I'm still learning the ropes of shooting video and then turning it to YouTube content, thanks to the iMovie program on my Macbook. So, I&

YouTube channel-first video

First video now live. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JySpieTk3Dg

Boston and Billings: the reserve clause connection

If you’re a reasonably astute baseball fan, you know who Dave McNally is and what he accomplished. To refresh your memory, the Billings native won 181 games for the Baltimore Orioles and three more games for the Montreal Expos before he retired from baseball and returned to his hometown

Book progress-it's going well!

Time for an update on the McNally book. We, my publisher, Sunbury Press, and I are progressing nicely. Sunbury assigned me an editor, Andrew Smith, a young guy in the Midwest, and we’ve been collaborating well. At the moment, I’m going through Andrew’s useful edits. I’ve

Get a sneak preview of the McNally book!

Greetings, and Happy Summer! It’s getting hot here in Billings, although we’ve been spared the extreme temperatures that may have descended on you. I’m overdue in sharing some very positive news: my McNally biography has a publisher! I’ve signed a contract with Sunbury Press, an independent

My McNally book has a publisher!

It’s time to share exciting news, which people connected to me on the social networks I frequent (Facebook and LinkedIn) already know, For the sake of those whom I’m not connected with or who missed the posts, here is the non-scoop. I recently found a publisher for

A Baltimore sportswriter remembers McNally

A guest post today from my professional friend, John Eisenberg, a retired sportswriter and sports columnist for the Baltimore Sun. Nowadays, John publishes his writing on Substack using the handle “Bird Tapes,” a nod to the Baltimore Orioles. I subscribe to Bird Tapes and especially enjoyed John’s recent article

Billings’ unsolved, century-old axe murders (continued)

Let’s travel back to early December 1924 and envision this scene: a drifter, or hobo as his type was commonly called then, has stepped off a freight train in the busy railroad yards of Billings. He might have arrived on the Northern Pacific line, coming from the east as

Missing word in post I just sent

A ways into what I just sent, you read this: “We always at 6:15 when everything was ready, and my parents would be there—and ready to eat,” as their second-youngest daughter, Louise, recalled decades later.” It should read: “We always [ate] at 6:15 …”” The joys of

The never-solved ax murders that shocked Billings a century ago

My biography of Dave McNally remains the top priority on my writing plate. I’ve received outstanding editing of the manuscript and am still tweaking it a bit while waiting to see if a publisher “bites” on the project. If not, I’ll go the self-published route. No matter

Double-ax murder: wrong address

Oops. I wrote some of the content I just sent out a few weeks ago. For some reason, I had the wrong address for the murder site at that time. Instead of 2911 Minnesota Avenue in Billings, which is on the north side of the street, the correct address is

Billings’ double-ax murder

I’d bet that most, if not almost all Montana natives like me and also people who’ve lived in Billings most of their life–me–or all their life, have never heard of the event I’m writing about here. A century after it occurred, this double-ax murder

Free agency signings

Few, if any, of us can predict the future with any degree of confidence, and Marvin Miller was no exception. Miller was executive director of the Major League Players Association, the players union, when he discussed the likely aftermath of the Seitz labor decision late in 1975. That ruling, the

Followup on post I just sent

I don't think you can see the YouTube content I included. Not sure why. I'll check and repost later. Thanks for your patience and support.

My speech about Dave McNally

I’m a member of the Club Med Toastmasters Club here in Billings. Here’s a speech I gave today (September 6, 2024) about Dave McNally.

The role of mentorship

A used copy of a classic writing book, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, by Christopher Vogler, arrived in the mail yesterday. I’ve started reading it, and I’m trying to apply Vogler’s wisdom to my own nonfiction writing, specially my in-progress biography of Dave

Curt Flood’s fight paved the way

My biography of Dave McNally would be incomplete without describing the crucial role that Curt Flood played in the battle to gain workplace fairness for baseball players. Flood, a star player for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1960s and a major contributor to their three World Series teams in

The day McNally got mad

Dave McNally wasn’t known for dramatics or being a hot-headed troublemaker. Yet once, in May 1967, he got called on the carpet for losing his temper. The Orioles were in a funk then. Coming off their 1966 World series triumph, the 1967 season turned into a letdown. By

“Lock, stock and barrel”

‘“They owned you, lock, stock and barrel.” That’s what Dave McNally said to a Baltimore Sun sportswriter in the summer of 1986. He was describing the relationship between major-league teams and players through 1975, the year that he retired from professional baseball and returned to his hometown of

Can't count?

Yes, I can. In the post I just sent, I mentioned three title choices when there were actually four. I started with three choices in a note on my phone, then added the fourth choice while writing the post. But I failed to update the explanatory wording. Hope you understand.

Still seeking your input on possible titles

At the risk of overloading your email inbox, here’s another post. As you may recall, I sent out something on Monday about a possible title for the upcoming biography of Dave McNally. The response wasn’t overwhelming, but it was usual, especially the reply I got from a fellow

Montana’s Dave McNally: the star pitcher who revolutionized baseball

The headline above represents the current working title of my upcoming biography of Dave McNally. What do you think? Drop me a line with comments. Here’s where things stand. Last Friday, I emailed my polished draft of the book to a topflight editor in Washington state. Jim is now

1960 antics

Before the Fourth of July (which I prefer to call Independence Day) gets away, I want to share the following. At the heart of this story is a kind of fireworks that I remember from my childhood: cherry bombs. My first memories of the Fourth come from when I was

Accolade from Nixon

In 1972, McNally received recognition from the most highly placed baseball fan in the country, President Richard Nixon. Nixon named McNally to his 1945 to 1970 all-time baseball team. Here’s the story behind that acclaim. At the end of a June 22, 1972, press conference, Cliff Evans, a

Billings loved McNally

Baltimore’s capture of the 1970 World Series and McNally’s historic role in beating Cincinnati increased the buzz around him in his hometown. By early January 1971, word came out that a limited number of autographed Dave McNally gloves would gо оп sale in Billings. The announcement was made

The all-Billings major-league pitching duel

How many smaller American cities, say those with a population no greater than about 120,000, can say they had two major-league pitchers at the same time, and both were starters the same season? And that those pitchers got key lessons in their mound skills in the same nationally-

After 1970-what for an encore?

The 1970 World Series was behind him. It had been a triumph on a team level, the Orioles having won the fall classic by beating the powerful Cincinnati Reds, and on an individual level, that being the grand slam home run Dave slugged against the Reds. That was then and

A blazing debut

Dave McNally was on the verge of turning 20, and his wife, Jean, was 19, when one of the most exciting things in their young life happened: the Orioles called him up towards the end of the 1962 season, and he threw a two-hit shutout to beat the Kansas

World Series flu?

Maybe it was in October 1955, when Dave was in the eighth grade in Fratt School, part of the Billings Catholic school system. That was the fall when the Brooklyn Dodgers topped the New York Yankees in their second “Subway Series,” Brooklyn winning the deciding seventh game behind the pitching

1966: the breakout year

The 1966 season, Dave McNally’s fourth full year with the Orioles, became the campaign when his performance marked him as a full-fledged major league pitcher. He finished the regular season with a 13–6 record, a 3.17 ERA and 158 strikeouts against 64 walks in the 213

Dave McNally: part of Billings

It didn’t take long after Dave, Jean and their growing family returned to Billings for him to become involved in the community. By the spring of 1978, Dave and Jean were parents of four children, ranging in age from Jeff (15) to Anne (2–1/2). Their fifth child,

Dave McNally, Sam McDowell, Jim Bouton–pitchers to always remember

The content below, which involves three pitchers of the 1960s and 1970s, Dave McNally, Sam McDowell, and Jim Bouton, may or not make it into Never Give an Inch, my upcoming biography of McNally. But it keeps me in the writing flow, so here goes. First, how many of you

My books, in print and in progress

A followup to my post earlier today.

Video introduction-Treasure State press

I am NOT a Hollywood wanabe ...

McNally book-your input requested

Book authorship requires marketing, so I have a favor to ask. Below is the draft book jacket copy for my next book (Never Give an Inch: How Dave McNally Sparked a Revolution in Major-League Baseball and Professional Sports). I'm trying to get a sense of its appeal

Shocking double-ax murders a century ago

Billings has witnessed a surge in violent crime in the past century, but it’s not as if the Magic City was a Mayberry-like place a century ago. One crime late that year seemed to prove that Billings was no longer a town but becoming a city, with city

The last battle

By late summer in 2002, Dave was fighting the hardest battle of his life. He turned 58 that year, and it had been more than two decades since he exchanged pitching mounds in Baltimore and Montreal for the comfort of his suburban home in Billings, complete with regular–at least

Oops!

Brain you know what ... In the piece on Dave McNally and Social Security, also published to my web site, I referred to Lyndon Johnson as the New Deal president. No, he wasn't, and I, as a history buff, knew that but still muffed it. Johnson, credited for Medicare,

Social Security helped McNally become a baseball star

A few days after Dave’s triumphant, World Series-clinching win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in October 1966, he and Jean made a short drive from their Baltimore home to suburban Woodlawn. Their destination was the Social Security headquarters. Both Dave and Jean were far from Social Security age—

Journalism, not farming-sorry Grandma

I experienced a light-bulb moment a few days ago when I realized where my love of sports, which led to my becoming a newspaper sportswriter, may have come from. For that, I thank my grandfather, Jacob “Jake” Gaub, father of my dad, William “Bill” Gaub, a lover of high

Custom combining-part of Montana’s historical tapestry

When you go down a rabbit hole, sometimes you get stuck and have trouble getting out. But occasionally, you find gems of history. That’s what happened to me this month when I started researching a slice of Montana agricultural history that has long fascinated me, a onetime Eastern Montana

Sandra Day O’Connor and Dave McNally

We spent most of the morning (December 19, 2023) watching the very moving funeral service for Sandra Day O’Connor in Washington’s National Cathedral. Seeing the nation say goodbye to the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court brought to mind a baseball story I heard a couple years

Bookends to a marvelous career

McNally's first win for Baltimore, late in the 1962 season when he was 19, and his last win wearing an Orioles uniform, in September 1974 when he was 31, shared something in common. Both were pitching masterpieces. Dave gave up two hits against Kansas City on September 27,

Hotel moguls and road trip fashion for the 1970s Orioles

When Dave McNally was on the road and not studying the hitting traits of opposing players and getting ready for his next pitching start, he often could be found in his hotel room playing a classic board game. By 1974, 12 years into his major league career, McNally had become

1974: the reserve clause under attack by another Oriole

Discontent over salaries and the reserve clause worked its way to the Orioles in 1974 and found an outlet in an unlikely player. Pitcher Doyle Alexander, twenty-three and in his third season with Baltimore after being traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers, refused to sign a contract that spring.

Typo

Sorry for the missing wordsand managled syntax. The perils of editing one's own copy. I don't recommend it. Let's try again. I'm trying to get your feedback on content that will appear in my Treasure State Press newsletter rather than guessing at

TV provides a window into the big-leagues world of the 1950s

Two television stations went on the air in Billings in 1953: KOOK-TV, now KTVQ, and KGHL-TV, now KULR-TV. At about that time, Beth McNally got a TV set, according to her daughter, Dee Nobles. Thus, Dave may have joined millions of Americans who watched major league baseball

How and why Dave McNally made a lasting mark on baseball and pro sports

Dave McNally was a courageous, principled man who stood up for what was right, risking a career most only dream of. He grew up in Billings, Montana, and became one of the best major league pitchers of his era and the greatest athlete to come out of the Treasure State.

Miles City’s Mr. Mayor played in the big leagues

A fun thing about writing is when, while researching the topic of your project, you learn something new. That happened to me while I was trying to get more insight into Dave McNally’s successful fight to overturn baseball's reserve clause. My research led me to a 2022

A pioneering challenger of baseball’s power

At this late date, twenty years and counting since his death in December 2002, it’s probably impossible to say if Dave McNally ever met Danny Gardella. Likely not. The bigger, more important, question is whether McNally ever heard of Gardella. Again, this writer cannot say for sure, but he

Offer to new premium-content subscribers

Get premium content through the Treasure State Press email newsletter twice monthly at a discount! Normally this is priced at $5 per month, but get this now at half off for three months. Three months of Montana history content delivered to your inbox for $7.50, compared with the regular

Lots happening when McNally was growing up

As a boy growing up in Billings in the 1950s, Dave McNally lived in the city's tree streets neighborhood, near the campus of then Eastern Montana College (now Montana State University-Billings). Still, he and his family, especially his mother, Beth, probably heard about a grassroots initiative some

1950s fun at Wonderland

Memories have faded, and several principal characters, including Dave McNally, are deceased as this is written in 2023. But it’s still reasonable to say that McNally and his childhood friends, among them Pete Cochran, Bob Fry, and Bill McIntosh, probably took part in typical adolescent activities in the 1950s

Missing word

Missing word in what I just sent. The offer of free content is available for the next 7 days.

Some premium content available

Good afternoon from rainy Billings, Montana. As a professional writer who earned a paycheck for what he put down on paper (or on a computer screen) for 25 years, I’ve decided that some of my writing here is worth at least a modest payment. I’ll still have free

Darn it-I hate typos

Hello again, I just sent out a newsletter with a typo. Here’s the paragraph with the flubbed wording: With a few hours of spare time before the game, the Billings players asked Bayne if they could go swimming at the city pool. He said, yes, and after swimming, “we

Ego will trip you

Parents of children growing up in the 1950s, as well as other adults influential in the lives of young people, often issued a timeless warning. The clichéd phrases they used went like, “don’t get too big for your britches,” or, “don’t get a swelled head.” And they applied

Baseball’s bonus rule

I’m not sure if you get into baseball minutinae as much as I do, so this may have minimal interest to you. But if you’re a serious baseball fan, you probably have heard of baseball’s bonus rule. Further, seeing that Dave McNally didn’t seem to be

It’s a good day for a baseball game—let’s play two

Dave McNally and Ernie Banks, who played for my favorite National League team while growing up, the Chicago Cubs, almost were in the same place in Billings one day in early 1976. And I, then a sportswriter who had just returned to Billings to work for the Gazette, would have

A relationship started at this storied Billings drive-in

Want to buy a real Billings landmark, a drive-in burger joint that traces its lineage to the late 1940s? And, to sweeten the deal, you would pick up the place where Dave McNally took his future wife. Jean, both students at Billings Central Catholic High School, on their first

Issue 1-Introduction

This is NOT a shameless pitch for work, but just a quick update. I’m pleased to say that I’ve embarked on a new journey, that of becoming a certified book coach. As such, perhaps I can help you or someone you know. So many people have thought: I’

Newsletter issue 1

This is NOT a shameless pitch for work, but just a quick update. I’m pleased to say that I’ve embarked on a new journey, that of becoming a certified book coach. As such, perhaps I can help you or someone you know. So many people have thought: I’

Testing

Seeing how multiple newsletters work. (Existing subscribers: please bear with me. Thanks.)

More Lindbergh Montana memories

I wrote this yesterday  from Polson, Montana, nestled on the south shore of Flathead Lake, where my wife and I stayed overnight in our motor home. That afternoon (April 17), we traveled a short distance north to Kalispell, where we were evening guests of the Northwest Montana Posse of Westerners,

McNally opens the 1971 season with a win for the Orioles

Another fun chunk from my upcoming book, “The Dave McNally Story.” I hope to have a rough draft finished sometime this summer and then seek a publisher. If no publisher bites, I’ll self-publish again. (Moving to the McNally newsletter) ------- 1971, Dave's eleventh full year as a

My love affair with baseball, and Dave McNally’s role in that

In hindsight, my year of birth was off, delayed by a few years from what I might have desired to best write the story of Dave McNally's life. Moreover, my place of birth could have been changed to make me a front-row observer—maybe even a youth

The Orioles, the Browns, Branch Rickey and a Billings pastor

When Dave McNally signed with the Baltimore Orioles, it had only been six years since the Monumental City (one of Baltimore's nicknames) had regained a major league baseball team. The modern Orioles date to 1954 when the American League approved moving the hapless St. Louis Browns to the

Billings, and Montana, go to the Little League World Series at last

Editor's note: This is “bonus” copy that accompanies my book-in-progress about the life of Billings' Dave McNally, who became a star pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles. He won 181 games for the Birds (second-most wins in team history), played in four World Series, won

McNally book-Chapter 1

Darned typos .... Note: The working title for this book is, The Dave McNally Story: A Montana Pitcher Makes Baseball History On and Off the Mound. I have been tempted to work the phrase, “lunchpail guy” into the title. Credit for that wording goes to Billings lawyer Bill Lamdin, a friend

The way we are

What if you were born in the early 1950s in Eastern Montana and, by the mid-1980s, are a reporter for the Billings Gazette? There, at Montana's largest newspaper, you became a bit of a nerd. It isn’t enough to write your stories on those early dumb

“Lindbergh in Montana” now in print

Exciting news! My new book, Lindbergh in Montana: An Air Adventurer Leaves a Legacy in the Treasure State, is now in print and available for purchase. You can order a print (paperback) copy at your favorite local independent book store through Ingram. Or, you can get a Kindle copy on

Buy "Lindbergh in Montana"

If you're one of the first 50 people to subscribe to this newsletter before February 28, 2023, or if you're an existing subscriber, I'm offering the book at a discount price of $14.36. That's 20 percent off the $17.95 list

A special deal for early “Lindbergh in Montana” readers

Want to be one of the first to read my next (and fourth) book ... at a discounted price, with the added bonus of getting a free e-book on a subject related to the print book? Here’s the deal I’m offering to early readers of Lindbergh in Montana—

Free e-book now available

Lindbergh in Montana - An Air Adventurer Leaves a Legacy in the Treasure State, my fourth book, is nearing publication. I expect it to be in print later this month (October 2022). Meanwhile, I’m offering some free reading to hopefully whet your appetite for the story of Charles Lindbergh’s

Early-day Glendive becomes a plane owner ... maybe

How often does any city, let alone a Montana city in the early years of the 20th century, become the chance owner of an airplane? That may have happened in the Eastern Montana city of Glendive as the result of a 1911 Fourth of July fracas reported in the Great

Before Lindbergh

When Charles Lindbergh came to Montana in 1922 as an unknown member of a barnstorming group, he was far from the first airborne daredevil to dazzle Treasure State audiences. More than a dozen early aviators, including balloonists, had already blazed the state’s big sky, its mountains, valleys, and plains.

“Lindbergh in Montana” forward

As I write this in 2022, 95 years have passed since Charles Lindbergh electrified the world. He became the most famous person on the planet, the first media-developed hero of the modern era, in May 1927, when he completed the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic. He flew

Lindbergh’s unpaid Billings bill

Not everyone in Billings held fond memories of Charles Lindbergh from when he lived in the city in 1922. Local historian Joyce Jensen, in her 1994 book, “Pieces and places of Billings History: Local Markers and Sites,” said Lindbergh was a hero to most in the city. But, Jensen wrote,

Lindbergh returns to Montana with war on the horizon

Just before the U.S. entered World War Two, Charles Lindbergh made his first flight into Billings in 12 years and spent his first on-the-ground time in the city in 17 years. In 1927, he flew over the city without landing, and in 1922, he lived several months