Chris Donnelly, the general manager of Avoq New Jersey and the author of five books on baseball, will be part of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Speaker Series this summer, discussing his latest book, ‘Get Your Tokens Ready,’ on Aug. 14.
“It’s an honor and a can’t wait to be there,” he said.
‘Get Your Tokens Ready: The late 1990s road to the Subway Series’ is the fifth book Donnelly has written on baseball (read full feature here) and third of a trilogy on the Mets-Yankees rivalry. (Purchase book here)
A first-time participant in the speaker series, Donnelly has had book signings in Cooperstown — going up during the Induction Weekend. He said it’s been the thrill of a lifetime.
“There’s a bookstore there that I sign at,” he said. “And no matter how many times I’ve done it, it’s still the coolest thing in the world for me to be there during induction weekend.”
His latest book chronicles the Mets-Yankees rivalry from the first game of interleague play (in 1997) through the final out of the 2000 World Series.
Donnelly said the book is written for fans of both teams.
“It starts with that first game of interleague play, when Dave Mlicki won — even though the Yankees won that three-game series,” he said.
“The book keeps going back to that game while it details future meetings: When the Mets finally won a series, in 1999, on a walk-off hit in Shea. How Dwight Gooden — in his first start with the Yankees in 2000 — beat the Mets in Shea during that two-site, day-night doubleheader. How Roger Clemens hit Mike Piazza in the head during the second game of that doubleheader, which set up the Clemens-Piazza at-bat at the World Series, when Clemens threw part of a broken bat toward Piazza.”
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Speaker Series this summer and will be discussing Get Your Tokens Ready at the Hall in Cooperstown on Thursday, August 14. It’s an honor and I can’t wait to be there. Here are a few more signings I have coming up, including tomorrow night in Brooklyn if any of my NYC friends are around. Stay tuned as well for some podcast and news article appearances.
