Published – General Catch-All
Baseball’s Greatest Hits and Misses
This book contains many history-making nuggets about things that took place on and off Major League Baseball fields. They all have one thing in common—they’re true!
Jack L. Hayes is a multiple award-winning author, producer of 180 minutes of award-winning training videos, columnist for two trade magazines, and publisher of a subscription newsletter for 22 years.
At the 2017 Royal Palm Literary Award Banquet, author Jack L. Hayes won First Place for his General Catch-All book, Baseball’s Greatest Hits and Misses. Each year at the RPLA Banquet, authors experience the joy of earning accolades for all the hard work that is often done in the privacy of the home with little to no recognition. We’re showcasing the best of the best with our First Place winners spotlight. Not only does RPLA recognize extraordinary talent, but we’re giving readers an opportunity to sample excerpts from the winning stories.
Click here to read an excerpt from Baseball’s Greatest.
An interview with Jack Hayes:
Jack L. Hayes had a great night at the 2017 Royal Palm Literary Awards Banquet. He won First Place for his published non-fiction book, Baseball’s Greatest Hits & Misses. Even a greater thrill for Jack was that his book also took the First-Runner-Up medal in the category for published Book of the Year. But wait, Jack’s next published book, EMBEZZLEMENT: The Ultimate Betrayal was also a winner. It won Second Place in the Educational/Informational category. In total, Jack Hayes has won seven RPLA awards for his six published non-fiction books.
Q: Where do you get your story ideas?
A: Basically, I write in two non-fiction categories. My business-related books are based on my personal experiences in managing my own international management consulting firm for thirty years. Those baseball books that I like to say are my “fun” books are based on both my teenage experiences as a Major League Baseball batboy for seven American League teams, and my friendships with a number of the games super-stars including such Hall of Fame players as Ted Williams, Satchel Paige, Mickey Mantle and others. Big league baseball is filled with all sorts of heroic, heartrending and fascinating stories. It is an excellent and fun topic to write about.
Q: Anything in particular about your award-winning RPLA entry that you’d like to share?
A: As noted earlier, I have been very lucky in the awards category; four of my six books have won first place and each of the other two, took home second-place awards. But, nothing came as more of a surprise as when this year’s first-place winner also won First-Runner-Up for Book of the Year.
Q: Who do you credit with inspiring your writing?
A: Not an easy question to answer. I do give credit to my now deceased high school English Literature teacher. She apparently saw something in me that I failed to recognize. In my business, I wrote a huge number of reports, many exceeding 200 pages, so that had to be on the plus side for helping me. In addition, I certainly appreciate the help and guidance given me by FWA’ Lady Lake Florida group and Writers League of The Villages.
Q: Any tips for new writers?
A: Well, number one tip would be to join FWA and other writer-related groups. I found my first editor at the Lady Lake group. Next, marketing can be a nightmare for authors. Therefore, ask yourself: Is your story marketable? It’s great to have a solid idea, but will it sell? Why this book? Have others written on the same topic? If yes, will your book provide a different perspective?
My website/blog is: JackLHayes.com
A message about supporting literacy in Florida:
If every member of FWA went to Smile.Amazon.com, chose Florida Writers Foundation, Inc. as their charity and, instead of logging into Amazon.com, logged into Smile.Amazon.com, FWF would receive 0.5% of the purchase funds. Every time.
We could significantly fund the literacy efforts of our organization. No money out of your pockets…just some invested time to set this up.
How easy for us to make a difference. To see all of our work, please read the pages of our website www.floridawritersfoundation.com. You’ll be proud.
Melody Dean Dimick,
President, FWF
