The Man Comes Around

Not that a formal invitation is required, but this Thursday night, April 2, Greg will read from Faith and Fear in Flushing: An Intense Personal History of the New York Mets, at the Happy Ending Lounge, home of Varsity Letters. Here's hoping you'll come out and listen and cheer and maybe buy a copy. (Already got one? FAFIF: AIPHOTNYM also makes a great gift!)

Varsity Letters is a great venue, even when the program isn't properly Metscentric. The Happy Ending Lounge is easy to get to: It's at 302 Broome Street, between Forsyth and Eldridge on the Lower East Side. Near the F train and an easy taxi ride from downtown or midtown. Despite the name, the happy endings are strictly figurative by now — to paraphrase a Castillo-sized rock star, we'll do anything to get readers, but we won't do that. Though speaking of trading money for pleasure, around the corner you can get five awesome dumplings for a measly buck at Dumpling House.

Though I'm admittedly biased, let me join more-objective readers in saying that Faith and Fear is a great book. It's one of those one-more-chapter books that keep you reading until suddenly it's hours after you planned to go to bed. Yes, it's a terrific baseball chronicle. But it's also a superb memoir, told with bracing, unflinching honesty and gentle humor. I knew my favorite team before I read Faith and Fear, but when I finished it I knew them far better and appreciated them far more. The same goes for my friend Greg.

Oh, and it's got pictures! And an afterword with Gary Cohen! And a foreword by some schlubby co-blogger that's not even that bad.

Anyway, I'll have the honor of introducing Greg Thursday night and the greater honor of sitting back and listening to him tell part of his story. I hope you'll join me for that, and come say hi and help celebrate his book.

Speaking of Faith and Fear, you can read a terrific interview with Greg by Jim Chairusmi at Gelf Magazine. And Greg took part in a roundtable with MetsBlog's Matthew Cerrone and Amazin' Avenue's Sam Page today at Bats, the New York Times' baseball blog. All three have wise counsel for the season to come.

The rest of the lineup for Varsity Letters: Matt McCarthy, author of Odd Man Out, a memoir of life in the minors; Mets poet Frank Messina, whom we like already; and Alex Belth, creator of Bronx Banter and the author of a terrific Curt Flood biography. Belth's a Yankee fan — you're not going to let him pull in a bigger crowd than Greg, now are you? (Actually Alex is a great writer and a wonderful guy, inexplicable rooting interests aside.)

Hope we see you there!

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