Birthday greetings go out to Jerry Klinkowitz, today. Klinkowitz is the author of Short Season and Other Stories (Johns Hopkins: 1988) and Basepaths (Johns Hopkins: 1995). The former is a collection of stories about a fictional minor league team in Iowa. These stories were novelized in Basebpaths.
Klinkowitz was a member of the ownership group of the now-defunct Waterloo Diamonds (Midwest League) from 1978 to 1994. He wrote of his experiences in Writing Baseball (Illinois: 1991)*. His fictional works drew from his time with the Diamonds.
Currently a professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa, Klinkowitz is also a noted authority on the works of Kurt Vonnegut.
* reprinted in 1999 by Southern Illinois as Owning a Piece of the Minors.
