{"product_id":"wax-pack-on-the-open-road-in-search-of-baseballs-afterlife-9781496218742","title":"Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball's Afterlife","description":"A \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times \u003c\/i\u003eBestseller \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Is there life after baseball? Starting from this simple question, \u003ci\u003eThe Wax Pack\u003c\/i\u003e ends up with something much bigger and unexpected--a meditation on the loss of innocence and the gift of impermanence, for both Brad Balukjian and the former ballplayers he tracked down. To get a truly random sample of players, Balukjian followed this wildly absurd but fun-as-hell premise: he took a single pack of baseball cards from 1986 (the first year he collected cards), opened it, chewed the nearly thirty-year-old gum inside, gagged, and then embarked on a quest to find all the players in the pack. Absurd, maybe, but true. He took this trip solo in the summer of 2015, spanning 11,341 miles through thirty states in forty-eight days. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Balukjian actively engaged with his subjects--taking a hitting lesson from Rance Mulliniks, watching kung fu movies with Garry Templeton, and going to the zoo with Don Carman. In the process of finding all the players but one, he discovered an astonishing range of experiences and untold stories in their post-baseball lives, and he realized that we all have more in common with ballplayers than we think. While crisscrossing the country, Balukjian retraced his own past, reconnecting with lost loves and coming to terms with his lifelong battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Alternately elegiac and uplifting, \u003ci\u003eThe Wax Pack\u003c\/i\u003e is part baseball nostalgia, part road trip travelogue, and all heart, a reminder that greatness is not found in the stats on the backs of baseball cards but in the personal stories of the men on the front of them. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Nebraska Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/01\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781496218742\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 280\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.30w x 1.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/28\/2020 pg. 1\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Brad Balukjian","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36654217461916,"sku":"9781496218742","price":25.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_c18c758b-21fc-4492-b6c2-f9e9cb7d3d2d.jpg?v=1603882927","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/wax-pack-on-the-open-road-in-search-of-baseballs-afterlife-9781496218742","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}