With his regular contributions to Sports Illustrated (where his by-line first appeared in 1962) and NPR's Morning Edition, Frank Deford is one of the most influential voices in the American sports media. The author of fourteen books and a Hall of Fame member of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters, Deford has won both an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his work in TV and radio. In The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball, Deford chronicles the early days of America’s most beloved pastime.

Philadelphia's own Buzz Bissinger is the author of the best-selling contemporary classic on high school football, Friday Night Lights, and A Prayer for the City. A former reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bissinger has won the Pulitzer Prize and the Livingston Award, among other honors. In Three Nights in August, Bissinger captures the heart and soul of modern baseball in a point-blank account of one dramatic three game series between the Cardinals and the Cubs, through the eyes of Cubs manager Tony La Russa.