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 with McNally and the early days of professional baseball in Billings.

The bonus content is:

1) An article about the Orioles’ kangaroo court, which “convened” in the clubhouse after games from the late 1960s through the early 1970s. This was a fun event that likely helped players, including Dave McNally, unwind as they took roles as the jury for “judge” Frank Robinson’s administration of justice. Read about the on-field infractions that resulted in fines and ended up piling up a decent pile of cash at the end of the season ... and a couple instances where the Orioles funneled the money into causes bigger than baseball.

2) An article about 1948 in Billings, when the just-started professional Mustangs were briefly affiliated with the Hollywood Stars. This happened when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, and the Giants called New York City home. What’s neat about this story is the Billings-Hollywood connection in the person of former Billings guy Bob Cobb who had ended up in Hollywood and became owner of the famed Brown Derby restaurant. Movie stars frequented the place, which is believed to be where the Cobb salad originated.

And Bob Cobb didn’t forget his hometown; he talked the likes of Bing Crosby, Cecille B. DeMille, and Barbara Stanwyck into buying shares of the Mustangs ball club. For which the city of Billings renamed its existing Athletic Field as Cobb Field in appreciation for what Bob Cobb had done. This, of course, became the place where Dave McNally and hundreds of other Billings youths honed their baseball skills.

My book eventually will be available through independent bookstores, starting with This House of Books in Billings and Country Bookshelf in Bozeman. For now, though, to become an early reader, please go to my author page at Sunbury Press and make your purchase there. It's here:

And how do you get your free content? Drop me a line at dennis@treasurestatepress.com, and include a receipt for your purchase. I'll send the items promptly. And if you want a signed copy, include your snail mail address, and I'll mail you a book plate with my signature that you can attach inside the book.

Also, I want to make the same offer to existing subscribers to my no-spam email newsletter than I'm making to new subscribers. I'll be glad to send you a PDF file with the first three chapters of the book if you request that at the email address listed above.

Thanks in advance. While I do want to sell as many copies of the book as possible and have legions of satisfied readers, my motivation for the book goes beyond mere profit. As you may be aware, I wrote this biography of McNally because I wanted to share with the world the true story of an unassuming man from my hometown whose principled stand for workplace fairness reshaped major league baseball.

It's my hope that reading about McNally will inspire you and others to actions that can make your community, our country, and the world a better place to live.