Was thrilled to talk with @williamfleitch, a fellow small-town Illinois native, about my book "Our Team." https://player.fm/series/people-still-read-books/luke-epplin-our-team-the-epic-story-of-four-men-and-the-world-series-that-changed-baseball

This was a special podcast personally because Will Leitch is indirectly responsible for me writing the book. Years ago, Leitch did a talk with novelist Chad Harbach, author of "The Art of Fielding," about a reissue of Christy Mathewson book "Pitching in a Pinch."

Chad Harbach had been the first editor to accept an article of mine--a piece for n+1 magazine more than a decade ago. And I'd also been interested in Will Leitch because he was a Cardinals fan and had grown up in my neck of the country.

Anyway, I loved the talk, bought a copy of Mathewson's book, loved it, wrote an article, sent it (foolishly) to the New Yorker, and it got accepted for their website. An agent read it, contacted me, and asked if I wanted to write a baseball book. The rest is history.

I'd been wanting to thank Leitch ever since, and I finally got the chance. Funny how life works out sometimes.