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Comedians Talking Baseball
America's funniest people get serious about the National Pastime...or not.
What if a few dozen of the best storytellers in the world wrote about the game they loved? You’d get a splendid book!
The similarities between young road comics and young baseball players are many, and you’ll find some terrific behind-the-scenes stories here about when the two worlds intersected. This one-of-a-kind book contains both the hysterical and the poignant. You can read straight-up jokes and touching personal memories. You’ll visit the ballyards and the comedy showrooms. There is also a big scoop of baseball history. It’s everything baseball through the eyes of top nightclub and TV comedians. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll want a hot dog and beer from the concession stand.
Over 40 professional stand-up comics contributed stories to Comedians Talking Baseball. Collectively, they played most every comedy club in America and throughout the English-speaking world during stand-up’s Golden Age of the 1980s and 90s. These guys and gals did sets on all the major television shows. The writers of these stories have won numerous Emmy Awards. They’ve written screenplays and stage plays and penned scripts for TV shows that range from Seinfeld to King of the Hill to Rugrats. There are joke writers for Letterman and Leno and Saturday Night Live. In these enjoyable pages, they all turn their complete attention to baseball.
A list of included authors Gabe Abelson, Kerry Awn, Tim Bedore, Joe Bolster, Bert Borth, Chip Chinery, Bruce Countryman, Lou DiMaggio, Tommy Drake, John Farnetti, Glenn Farrington, Slade Ham, Rob Haney, Jon Hayman, Cheryl Holliday, Andy Huggins, George Kanter, Mark Knope, Sue Kolinsky, James Ladmirault, Dave Little, Sean Morey, Rob Mungle, Mike Nilsson, Leo Nino, John Pate, Dennis Phillippi, Dennis Piper, Monica Piper, Ron Reid, T. Sean Shannon, Ritch Shydner, Dan St. Paul, Elliott Threatt, Mike Vance, Billy D. Washington, John Wessling, Chris White, Tracy Wright, and Robert Wuhl
This book is perfect for fans of sports or comedy.
What if a few dozen of the best storytellers in the world wrote about the game they loved? You’d get a splendid book!
The similarities between young road comics and young baseball players are many, and you’ll find some terrific behind-the-scenes stories here about when the two worlds intersected. This one-of-a-kind book contains both the hysterical and the poignant. You can read straight-up jokes and touching personal memories. You’ll visit the ballyards and the comedy showrooms. There is also a big scoop of baseball history. It’s everything baseball through the eyes of top nightclub and TV comedians. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll want a hot dog and beer from the concession stand.
Over 40 professional stand-up comics contributed stories to Comedians Talking Baseball. Collectively, they played most every comedy club in America and throughout the English-speaking world during stand-up’s Golden Age of the 1980s and 90s. These guys and gals did sets on all the major television shows. The writers of these stories have won numerous Emmy Awards. They’ve written screenplays and stage plays and penned scripts for TV shows that range from Seinfeld to King of the Hill to Rugrats. There are joke writers for Letterman and Leno and Saturday Night Live. In these enjoyable pages, they all turn their complete attention to baseball.
A list of included authors Gabe Abelson, Kerry Awn, Tim Bedore, Joe Bolster, Bert Borth, Chip Chinery, Bruce Countryman, Lou DiMaggio, Tommy Drake, John Farnetti, Glenn Farrington, Slade Ham, Rob Haney, Jon Hayman, Cheryl Holliday, Andy Huggins, George Kanter, Mark Knope, Sue Kolinsky, James Ladmirault, Dave Little, Sean Morey, Rob Mungle, Mike Nilsson, Leo Nino, John Pate, Dennis Phillippi, Dennis Piper, Monica Piper, Ron Reid, T. Sean Shannon, Ritch Shydner, Dan St. Paul, Elliott Threatt, Mike Vance, Billy D. Washington, John Wessling, Chris White, Tracy Wright, and Robert Wuhl
This book is perfect for fans of sports or comedy.
285 pages, Paperback
Published March 24, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 26, 2026
Baseball has been a huge part of American life for generations, as has stand-up comedy. Mike Vance’s book, “Comedians Talking Baseball,” is the best of both worlds, as he turns to comics to tell their stories about the game.
While sportswriters in general, and especially baseball writers have always used their words to paint a tableau of the games they cover and the personalities they encounter, the writing of comedians has a different feel. It’s a more urgent imperative because for a comic every word is crucial, every beat vital to grab their audience and keep them every step of the way. The stories and memories come quicker, the emotional connections established promptly. These are writers who have spent their lives grabbing an audience from the opening pitch, and they know how to build those connections.
And of course, there are many parallels and similarities, from the road trips and cheap hotels on the minor-league, just-starting-out side of things, to the fame and associations it affords at the top of a career. Vance’s roster of comics explores a wide selection of these connections, in ways both emotional and hilarious.
“Comedians Talking Baseball” is a fascinating love letter to the game, written by a Murderer’s Row of talented baseball fans whose entire careers are dedicated to getting ahead of the count from the first pitch.
While sportswriters in general, and especially baseball writers have always used their words to paint a tableau of the games they cover and the personalities they encounter, the writing of comedians has a different feel. It’s a more urgent imperative because for a comic every word is crucial, every beat vital to grab their audience and keep them every step of the way. The stories and memories come quicker, the emotional connections established promptly. These are writers who have spent their lives grabbing an audience from the opening pitch, and they know how to build those connections.
And of course, there are many parallels and similarities, from the road trips and cheap hotels on the minor-league, just-starting-out side of things, to the fame and associations it affords at the top of a career. Vance’s roster of comics explores a wide selection of these connections, in ways both emotional and hilarious.
“Comedians Talking Baseball” is a fascinating love letter to the game, written by a Murderer’s Row of talented baseball fans whose entire careers are dedicated to getting ahead of the count from the first pitch.
March 24, 2026
Mike Vance has collected a wild array of stories about baseball in his latest book. The authors are funny people with a gift for storytelling that is punctuated with humor. I was not born into a baseball family. I married into one. I’ve learned a lot over the last decade and a half of Astros season ticket ownership. I learned more about baseball through the book. I enjoyed the memories of games – the mundane and the spectacular. I now understand why it was a big deal to meet Sandy Koufax in the mid 80s (in San Antonio.) The humor in the book is consistently great, though not appropriate for all ages. I’ll wait before handing it off to my 11 year old center fielder.
March 26, 2026
Comedy and baseball -- what's not to like? A romp through two of America's favorite pastimes. Fun stories and clever prose throughout. This is a well-researched yet breezy read that is worth the time.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews