My Love Affair with Baseball and Writing Romance

This week was Opening Day in many Major League Baseball cities and it got me to thinking about the past when becoming a writer was just a dream I could barely imagine coming true.

When I was in my teens I had two big loves during every summer -- reading romance novels and watching baseball games.  I was a true believer in romance and I walked to the library every week to get two to three romance novels. I think I went through every Avon and Avalon romance in our town's library. Some I read more than once.

But I was also a big fan of major league baseball.  I couldn't get enough of it, listening to games on the radio and watching TV games on weekends. Even though I had never been to a big league game and there wasn't much hope I was getting to one any time soon, I followed every team's daily fortunes in the pennant races. I lived in a small southern Colorado farming town and there wasn't a single big league team within 400 miles. This was long before expansion brought the Colorado Rockies to Denver.

When I eventually discovered Denver had a "farm" team, or minor league team named the Bears, I began to get up my hopes that someday I might actually get to see a major league baseball team play. I spent one whole summer in Denver and delayed my college education for a year just so I could look for work and see the Minnesota Twins play the Denver Bears in an exhibition game. It was worth it just to see the great Dean Chance pitch and get autographs from Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew. Imagine my excitement a few years later when I even made it to San Diego for Opening Day and got to see the Padres take on the Houston Astros.

My love affair with baseball was in full swing and after that I seldom missed an Opening Day. I loved the excitement of starting a new season. Every record was wiped clean and any team could win the pennant on that day. Since my first opening day I've made it to a good many in the different cities where I've lived, Colorado Rockies, California Angels, San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners. ahh... the thought still brings tears to my eyes.

So naturally when I started writing romances I had to write a book dedicated to baseball. I couldn't put a woman in a uniform, but I could certainly put her into the broadcasting booth, and that was just what I did with my first romance, Love On Deck. It's a book that remains one of my favorites as announcer Cere Morales goes after her dream of broadcasting baseball games and runs into a sexy baseball manager, Sam Lucero, who can't hide his feelings that women have no business on the field or in the clubhouse. The book has been out a few years, but it's still one of my favorites and I love to re-read it and remember my first days at a major league baseball field. 

Here's a blurb from Love on Deck:

"Women don't belong on the baseball field. "
That's the way handsome, playboy manager Sam Lucero thinks, but just try telling that to Amber Morales-she wants to be a baseball radio announcer. But she wants no part of a macho ex-jock who is trying to tell her what she can and can't do. But while they may be striking out on the field, their hearts are hitting a grand slam in the bedroom.

It received 4 Stars from RT Book Reviews and it's still a fun read.