BOOKS

Season of Upsets: Farm boys, city kids, Hoosier basketball & the dawn of the 1950s

This is the incredible, untold story of the 1950 Indiana high school basketball season. The wild circumstances of that one season captured the essence of Hoosier hysteria in all its glory. But this is much more than a sports story. The students were born into the Great Depression and grew up in the shadow of World War II. The coaches were veterans of war. A fire destroyed a school, but not its spirit. A coal strike threatened everything. There were hard times and fond memories. But in the end, everyone shared one common love: basketball.

A White Sox Life: From Hoosier farm boy to 42 years in Major League Baseball

This is the story of a farm boy whose reality exceeded his wildest dreams. Glen Rosenbaum grew up on an Indiana farm on a dirt road in the 1950s. After graduating high school, he expected to be a farmer or a factory worker. While pitching a Sunday beer league baseball game at age 18, the umpire asked if he could call a friend to watch Glen play. The friend scouted for the Chicago White Sox and that conversation led to a 42 year career in Major League Baseball. This book explores Glen’s journey from playing catch in the barnyard and learning to throw a curve ball to his first try-out at Comiskey Park and the amazing people he worked with through the years.

How Sweet It Is: The 1966 Elston Red Devils

In 1966, 544 teams competed in the coveted Indiana state basketball tournament and Michigan City Elston H.S. won it all. Now you can experience the sights, sounds, and emotions just as the winning players, coaches, cheerleaders, and fans experienced it 50 years ago. How Sweet It Is takes you on the amazing journey through that season. Learn about the unlikely coach and the selfless players who carried the town’s hopes from the windy shores of Lake Michigan to basketball royalty in Indianapolis.

CAR C RASH: Historic photographs 1937-48

There is art in everyday life. Through these car accident scenes, photographers captured the human spirit and a bygone era. Plate cameras shooting four inch by five inch film exposed these scenes in stunning detail. Facial expressions and body language tell one story. The backgrounds, cars, roads, signs, trains, buildings, utility poles, and clothing tell another. Some photographs will make you laugh. Others will make you pause. All of them encourage you to explore the image deeper.

Dispatches from a Northern Hoosier

This is a collection of articles, and history, and essays gathered over 11 years. Some were published previously; others appear in print for the first time. The diverse subjects include an artist who expressed his cancer through art, a steel worker who wanted to be a writer, a mysterious train wreck, America’s first airline terrorist attack in 1933, a farm boy who spent 42 years in Major League Baseball, local women’s basketball history, and tributes to everyday people who made a difference in the lives of others. You may not know the names of the people presented in this collection, but you’ll come to wish you had. Everybody has a story to tell and Werner is just a guy trying to write them.

The Patch Players