For those interested in baseball — both real and fictional — there is a book (and a book signing tonight) that might be up your alley. It’s called “Chasing Moonlight,” and it chronicles the real-life story of Doc Graham, made famous in the movie “Field of Dreams,” which believe it or not came out 20 years ago. You’ll recall Graham, in the movie (and also W.P. Kinsella’s book “Shoeless Joe”), was said to have played in just one Major League game before turning to medicine in the small Minnesota town of Chisholm. The new book, though, attempts to tell his entire story:

In “Chasing Moonlight,” Brett Friedlander and Robert Reising prove that truth is more interesting than fiction. The real-life Moonlight Graham didn’t play just a half-inning for John McGraw’s New York Giants, as depicted in Field of Dreams. Neither did he retire from baseball after his lone major league appearance. Rather, he became a fan favorite during a noteworthy professional career, all the while juggling baseball with medical residencies.

Graham’s life apart from baseball was just as eventful. He was a physician who sat with patients through epidemics and wrote a blood pressure study that was required reading at medical schools worldwide. But he was also a failed inventor and small-town character who built perpetual-motion machines and filled his home with tennis balls and empty oatmeal boxes.

Friedlander contacted us a couple of weeks ago; he’ll be doing a book signing tonight at the Roseville (Har Mar) Barnes & Noble from 6 to 9 p.m. Check out the event, the book, or both.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.