SSTN Interviews Chris Jensen

By Paul Semendinger

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Today I share my interview with author Chris Jensen.

Please tell our readers a little about yourself and, of course, your books.    

I grew up in a small town in the Catskills close to Cooperstown, N.Y., where my parents still live, which explains how I turned into a huge baseball fan. I currently live in Zionsville, Indiana, a northern suburb of Indianapolis, with my wife, Tiffany, who is also a big Yankees fan. We have four kids, two are still in college.

My first book, Baseball State by State, came out from McFarland in 2012 and offered a fresh approach to the familiar concept of all-time baseball teams. I ranked more than 2,500 players by state of birth (including Negro Leaguers). For example, who was the best first baseman born in Indiana, Gil Hodges or Don Mattingly? Is Cy Young or Roger Clemens the best right-handed starter born in Ohio? Each chapter covers one state and opens with the all-time team by position, followed by any worthy honorable mentions. Then I included the stats leaders for each state, a fairly comprehensive list of player nicknames (over 1,400), a brief overview of the state’s baseball history, historic places to see, notable achievements, the state’s all-time best player, future stars, and fun facts about lesser-known players from that state. I had so much fun working on that book, but it took an exhaustive amount of research and writing time over five years. I got the idea from seeing a list in the Indianapolis Star of an all-time team of native Hoosiers. I thought I could come up with a better team, and that was so much fun I played around with a few other states. By the time I had completed all-time teams for 10 states, I knew I had a good book concept.

My second book from McFarland, Baseball’s Two-Way Greats: Pitching/Batting Stars from Ruth and Rogan to Ohtani, started shipping in late December but the official release date was January 7, 2025. It bothered me how many times I heard a broadcaster, writer or fan mention that Shohei Ohtani is the first two-way player since Babe Ruth, also inferring that they’re the only noteworthy two-way players in baseball history. I knew that to be false, but I wanted to dive into the research and determine exactly how many noteworthy two-way players there have been—I came up with 133!

In-depth profiles examine how Ohtani and Ruth compare to 19th-century star John Montgomery Ward and Negro League standouts Bullet Rogan, Martín Dihigo, Leon Day and Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe as two-way players. I featured 60 additional Negro League players and top two-way players from the 19th century, Deadball Era and Live Ball Era. Also included was an overview of 25 top-hitting pitchers.

Negro League team rosters often included only 13 or 14 players and they played up to 200 games a year with a lot of doubleheaders. Those teams were filled with two-way players, because everyone had to be versatile. Ruth was really only a two-way player during his last two seasons with the Red Sox. I’ll let readers make their own determination about who they think is baseball’s greatest two-way player.

Outstanding. Those are two books full of great information, stats, and a lot of fun.

What do you most enjoy about writing?

I enjoy the research part of the process that is so essential before the actual writing can begin, learning new facts and diving down rabbit holes of information. But I find the actual writing process to be pure torture. There’s nothing enjoyable about writing until I’m done with a particular piece, and then I’m very proud to have accomplished what I set out to do. I’m a detail-oriented perfectionist, so no matter how many times I read over one of my articles or book chapters, I will always find something to change. I’ve taped my favorite writing quote right above my desk where I do all my writing. It’s from Jacqueline Woodson and it reads: “Write something good, and feel good about writing it.”

Do you have any current writing projects you are working on?  Can you tell us about them? I’m extremely excited about my third book for McFarland, which is about 90 percent complete. It’s tentatively titled “Black Baseball Lives Stolen Too Soon” and should be available by the end of 2025. I identified about 150 Negro League players (and a few execs) who died early, tragic deaths, which is compounded by the fact they were prohibited from playing in the major leagues. I dive into their playing careers and lives and the often sad circumstances surrounding their deaths. For example, there were a lot of deaths from tuberculosis in the early 1900s. My book is an attempt to give these Negro League players some lasting recognition that otherwise eluded them due to baseball’s established policy of segregation. And in quite a few cases, players were cut down in the prime of their playing careers. This has been less of a fun project, although I’ve learned a lot about famous and obscure Negro Leaguers, and more of a duty and obligation to present an accurate accounting of their stories.

Please let me know when the book comes out and we'll have you back again.

Why are people so drawn to baseball and its stories, legends, and people?

It’s the iconic players, the unbeatable records and the long history of exciting games/series and amazing accomplishments that separate baseball from other sports. Try naming a famous NFL or NBA player from the 1930s, 1940s or 1950s. There are no famous records or numbers that NFL or NBA fans can remember like DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs, Roger Maris’ 61 home runs, or Reggie Jackson’s three home runs in a World Series game. Baseball gives us 162 opportunities a year (plus the playoffs) to have something spectacular or unique happen. I thought I knew a lot about baseball history until I started working on my first book. I was learning something new and fascinating every day and then two hours into my research, I would forget what I had originally started to look up.

What is your favorite baseball book?

Other than my own, I’d have to go with the one I’m almost finished reading now: Joe Posnanski’s The Baseball 100. He’s such a good storyteller and I’m learning lots of interesting baseball facts I didn’t know before about 100 all-time great players. I would have included a few more Negro Leaguers in the top 100, but it’s hard to not leave out about 25 superstars. No one has ever written more eloquently about baseball than Roger Kahn, especially The Boys of Summer. Also, I greatly enjoyed reading The Catcher Was a Spy this past year about Moe Berg’s fascinating life as a catcher and as a spy for the CIA. There are still so many unanswered questions about one of the most interesting people to ever play MLB baseball.

Outside of baseball, what is your favorite book and/or who is your favorite author?  (You can list as many as you wish.)

I was an English major in college, so I gravitate to classic authors like Hemingway and Fitzgerald. I must confess I’ve read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy three times. I also enjoy the Jack Reacher series from Lee Child and suspense/thriller books from Brad Thor, David Baldacci, and Michael Koryta.

There's a lot of talk about baseball needing to be "fixed."  Is baseball broken?  If you were the Commissioner of Baseball what change(s) (if any) would you make to the current game? Baseball is not broken, unless they adopt the “golden at-bat” rule. I think it’s time for the Commissioner to address the out-of-control deferred payroll spending of the Dodgers, which allows them to buy up so many of the top free agents for bargain prices without incurring a commensurate level of tax penalties. The players can defer paying the high California state income tax on those deferred salaries and the Dodgers are kicking the can down the road on $1 billion-plus in deferred payments, which can later be used as a huge tax write-off for the Guggenheim private equity consortium that owns the team. Hard to believe a Yankees fan would complain about a team buying a championship, but that’s exactly what the Dodgers are doing.

I love to talk about the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Which former Yankee most deserves to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame?

I’m partial to Andy Pettitte, because he’s my wife’s favorite player and he’s still the all-time leader with 19 postseason wins. Jack Morris is in the Hall, yet Andy beats him in most categories. He’s ahead 60.2 to 43.5 in WAR, has two more total wins, 12 more postseason wins, a lower ERA, and beats him by 12 points in ERA+. If Morris is in, then Pettitte deserves to be in. Also, Carlos Beltrán has paid enough of a penalty for the Astros’ cheating scandal—he is definitely an all-time great player. I get to vote for the Hall of Fame as a member of the IBWAA (although it’s not the official vote), and this year I voted for five former Yankees: Pettitte, Beltrán, Andruw Jones, CC Sabathia and Ichiro Suzuki (plus Chase Utley and Billy Wagner)

What is the greatest baseball movie of all time?  (Yes, you can list a few!) 

I can watch Field of Dreams over and over. It puts me in the mind of every little boy who dreams of a baseball future to make his dad proud. There was nothing cooler than watching Aaron Judge and the other players step out of the cornfield during the Field of Dream game vs. the White Sox in 2021. Number two would be Bull Durham. The mound scene with “Candlesticks always make a nice gift” line might be the funniest scene in movie history.

What is your favorite baseball memory?

I’m going to share two favorite baseball memories. Number one, being in the stands in Yankee Stadium the day Derek Jeter had his number retired on May 14, 2017. It gave me chills hearing the crowd chant his name. My son, Brandon, and I formed a baseball bond while rooting for Jeter and the Yankees. Number two would be traveling to London in 2019 with my wife and about 20 other Yankee fans to watch both games of the Yankees vs. the Red Sox series. Who could have predicted Aaron Hicks would hit the first MLB home run in Europe? I’ve never had more fun while sweating like a pig for five hours, watching the Brits try to figure out why all the players kept running around the bases. We learned that curveballs don’t curve in London Stadium, so it was nine innings of batting practice but so much fun that week.

Please share anything else you'd like with our audience.

I played two years of JV baseball as a second baseman in high school but got cut from the varsity team as a senior, which crushed me. Although I’ve been a fan of the Yankees my entire life, my favorite player growing up was Johnny Bench—my favorite Yankee back then was Roy White. Finally, the work that has paid the bills for my entire adult life has entailed traveling around the country visiting hardware stores and then writing about them. I recently completed a humorous novel about a small-town hardware retailer, and that should be out later in 2025.

Thank you Chris. Good luck with your writing and travel. Let's go Yankees!