The Conman

by Mike Murphey

Conor Nash has lived his life with a single purpose--to pitch in the Major Leagues. He's been released from professional baseball contracts ten times over a sixteen-year career, but he's overcome every obstacle to finally reach The Show when he's a decade too old. As he faces the specter of injury-forced retirement, he becomes a man neither he nor his wife recognizes.

During his career, Conor avoided the trap of alcohol and drugs because his drug was baseball. And what can an addict do when he realizes he will never get that high again? Conor climbs treacherous Camelback Mountain, drinks a bottle of Champagne, recalls people and events, and seeks an answer. Who is Conor Nash if he can't pitch?

The Conman is based on the Life of Keith Comstock. Keith pitched professionally for sixteen years, including Major League time with the Seattle Mariners, the San Diego Padres, the San Francisco Giants and the Minnesota Twins. Following his retirement in 1992, Keith has held minor league coaching and managing positions with several organizations. For the past decade he has served as the rehabilitation instructor for the Texas Rangers.

378 pages, Hardcover

Published November 11, 2019

About the author

Mike Murphey is a native of eastern New Mexico and spent almost thirty years as an award-winning newspaper journalist in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest.
Following his retirement from the newspaper business, he and his wife Nancy entered in a seventeen-year partnership with the late Dave Henderson, all-star centerfielder for the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners. Their company produced the A’s and Mariners adult baseball Fantasy Camps. They also have a partnership with the Roy Hobbs adult baseball organization in Fort Myers, Florida.
At the age of 60, Mike stopped procrastinating and revived his life-long ambition to write a novel. His debut novel, a coming-of-age story called Section Roads—a coming of Age story set in the small town where he grew up—has been recognized by Indie Reader Discovery Awards, Reader Views Reviewers Choice Awards, The IAN Book of the Year Awards, the Somerset Contemporary Fiction Awards, and the Independent Publishers Book Awards. His novel, The Conman … A Baseball Odyssey, has been recognized by the International Book Awards, the eLit Awards and the Manhattan Book Awards. He has also published his humorous science fiction Physics, Lust and Greed series, which includes Taking Time … a Tale of Physics, Lust and Greed, Wasting Time and Killing Time. “We Never Knew Just What It Was… The Story of the Chad Mitchell Trio” is his first work of non-fiction. Mike loves fiction, cats, baseball and sailing. He splits his time between Spokane, Washington, and Phoenix, Arizona where he enjoys life as a writer and old-man baseball player.