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What is being said about author Bob Wirz and "My Nebraska" "As a fellow midwesterner (Iowa), I know how much my roots, family and community mean to me. No one bleeds Nebraska like my mentor and friend Bob Wirz, and he certainly knows how to tell a compelling story", praised Scott Reifert, Senior Vice President, Chicago White Sox. "When we chose Bob Wirz to be a member of the (Nebraska Baseball) Hall of Fame we knew we had a qualified baseball man and a deeply-rooted Nebraskan as well as a solid wordsmith", lauded Ron Douglas, Director.

Hot Addition to Bookshelves: 'My Nebraska'
Native of Tiny Village Shares His Never-Ending Passion
For the Cornhusker State Decades After His Baseball Career Took Him Away

It seems almost universally accepted that Nebraskans are friendly, hard-working people.

A native son, who eventually transitioned to the East Coast because it was the best avenue to follow his passion of continuing to work in major league baseball, has published a book to share a lifetime of memories of growing up in the Cornhusker state.

You may have guessed it when you saw the title: My Nebraska. Yes, Bob Wirz, now a youthful 85, is sharing his "rich memories of growing up in rural Nebraska" in the 1940s and 1950s in a delightful 142 pages in the book produced by Dorrance Publishing in Pittsburgh, PA.

What was it like when your hometown, the Sandhills village of Halsey, had less than 150 residents? What did young people--actually those of any age--do for work and just as important for fun?

Wirz, who got to live his passion of working at the highest levels of baseball and later developing his own sports public relations and marketing company, lovingly empties out his memories of everything from counting millions of tiny trees to playing grass-roots baseball where the age of teammates might run from the early teens to the 50s.

The colorful cover of My Nebraska, which features two paintings from Dunning, NE rancher/artist Laron McGinn that depict the beautiful landscape of rural Nebraska and the ranching lifestyle, sets the tone for the 5 x 8 book also filled with meaningful pictures.

It is "a wistful and endearing love letter to Nebraska filled with memories shared by generations raised in small towns throughout the Midwest", praises Shari Veil, who heads up the journalism and mass communications department at the University of Nebraska, where Wirz graduated in 1959.

"Bob is a longtime friend of mine through baseball who has a great passion for our state" adds Jim Abel, who owns the professional Lincoln Saltdogs in the Capital City. Longtime Los Angeles Dodgers executive Fred Claire wrote the book's foreword in which he said the author's "journey from a tiny town...to working for the top office in major league baseball is a story of dedication, love of family, and realizing dreams can come true".

This is Wirz's second book, following up on his "The Passion of Baseball" about a career spent almost entirely in sports with stints or media work and highlighted by 16 years in the major leagues from the Kansas City Royals to the Baseball Commissioner's office in New York City plus recent decades of running his own sports public relations and marketing company.

The author has lived in Connecticut since leaving the Midwest in 1974, but has "persistent lovely thoughts" of Nebraska "and I want to share them with my fellow Cornhuskers, the honest, hard-working, and down-to-earth people who populate or have previously populated this area".

Copies (without an autograph) may be ordered at dorrordr@dorrancepublishing.com or 1-800-788-7654, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble (BN.com).

Comment: Interviews, special appearances, permission to reprint excerpts and book signings may be arranged through Dorrance Publishing or directly with the author at BWirz2@gmail.com

Baseball Lifer Bob Wirz Shares His Road
From Tiny Midwestern Town to Major Leagues'
Top Publicist Via 'The Passion of Baseball'

It is said only about six per cent of the United States population gets to spend a lifetime working in a profession the person dreamed of since childhood. Bob Wirz believes he is part of a much smaller group who has lived a long life rubbing shoulders with the biggest names in baseball without ever swinging a bat or throwing a ball beyond the most scruffy of diamonds.

"The Passion of Baseball", Wirz's book tells the headline-making, celebrity-filled story of living out the dream of a tiny town lad who grew up in the Sandhills of Nebraska and went on to head up Major League Baseball's media fishbowl for more than a decade in New York City. As a friend once put it, this is a "dream journey from the cornfields of the Midwest to the skyscrapers of the country's largest city."

Wirz uses 350 pages to share insights on the first six years of the Kansas City Royals (he was Publicity Director) to White House trips, sitting with manager Bob Lemon on the New York Yankees' victory flight after the history-making Bucky Dent playoff home run of 1978 and surviving the early years of the sport's anger-filled free agency.

Readers relive the author's experiences in "Passion" during the 1989 San Francisco-Oakland earthquake-interrupted World Series, rubbing shoulders with actor Jack Nicholson during an All-Star Game, the joy of induction weekends at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY and his last four-hour visit with former commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who had gone from being his boss to his friend and business partner.

Wirz also takes readers through about three decades of the ups and downs of running his own sports public relations company, which included handling publicity for the coveted Rolaids Relief Man program, ground-breaking anniversary planning for Little League Baseball and helping IBM become the first company to put reality into home run distances. Along the way, he fell in love with--and wrote-- the touching stories of undrafted players who worked their way from the smallest of Independent baseball leagues to major league baseball fame and financial security.

"The Passion of Baseball" is only available here. Use the button below to order via PayPal, credit or debit card for a reduced price of only $12.00 plus $4.50 for shipping and handling. (Enter name for whom book is to be personally autographed.)

Contact: For interviews, book-signings and more contact the author (BWirz2@gmail.com, 203 858-4890).