About Me

 

Eric C. Gray

Who am I, and why should you read my books?  Good questions.  I have written poetry and song lyrics mostly for my own amusement and training projects related to my job, but I am guessing THAT is not why you will buy my books.  I wrote for a short-lived on-line baseball magazine and would be happy to share those essays with you, but, again, THAT won’t draw you to my books of music and baseball memories.

 

My books are collections of stories that everyone can relate to, baseball fan, music fan, or not. These are stories that make you remember something from your life; stories that make you wish you had been there. 

 

The inspiration for my first book came from a nice afternoon at the ballpark, when I asked my wife, daughter and friend “what is your favorite game that you have been to?”  That question took on a life of its own and changed my life in ways I never could have anticipated.  From that was born Bases to Bleachers: A Collection of Personal Baseball Stories from the Stands and Beyond, filled with stories that moved me…to tears, to laughter, to remember my own experiences in greater detail.  These are the stories from people who you and I pass on the street every day, but don’t get a chance to meet, ask them questions, or hear about their experiences.  That’s exactly what I did.  I spent eight years meeting people, making friends, and collecting their baseball stories. And I got 1250 of them, from more than 700 story contributors.  We all have our favorite memories, and I was the lucky recipient of some amazing ones from people just like you and me.  I gut-wrenchingly narrowed them down to about 275 for the first book, leaving many book-worthy stories (and entire chapters) for the next volume.  And I continued to collect more stories as I traveled around the country doing readings from Bases to Bleachers and meeting so many new people.

 

In July 2022 I published my second book, Backyards to Ballparks: More Personal

Baseball Stories from the Stands and Beyond. By now I had over 2000 stories. This book includes many new chapters, including: My First Game [I often ask myself why this wasn’t the first chapter in my first book...a mystery], as well as some core chapters that were part of the first book on the themes of ‘what baseball means to me’ and ‘family and baseball’. More amazing heartfelt stories for your enjoyment!

 

With this understanding of the joy of stories, I decided to collect stories about my greatest love, music.  So once again, I began the process of collecting stories from friends and strangers alike.  Stories involve first and greatest concert experiences, playing music, meeting favorite musicians, stories from around the world and, of greatest interest to me, why music, or a particular song or artist, means so much.  As a result, there is now a two-volume set titled Music We Heard Along The Way.  In these books, once again, you will find stories that make you howl, such as the things that happen at a rock concert, or make you tear up when you read how music deeply affects people, and just remember that album, that artist, that concert that means so much to you.

 

I am originally from Plainview, New York, and earned my BA in Political Science from SUNY New Paltz in 1974.  I took a cross-country bus trip, with the intent of becoming a disc jockey and coming to San Francisco and write a book on the history of protest music. I arrived in San Francisco in 1974, where I soon began a 39-year career at the U.S. Department of Labor, administering job training and employment programs for disadvantaged youth, most of that time spent with the Job Corps program.  I met my future wife, Lynn Rhodes, on my first day at the Department of Labor and never moved back to NY. Lynn and I have two adult children, Rachel in San Francisco and David in Washington, D.C.  We are all baseball and music fans, along with David’s wife, Lisa, and our two beautiful granddaughters, Juliet and Vivian.

 

My hobbies include rock and roll, following politics, playing and watching baseball and basketball, hiking, and hanging out with friends and family.  I am always soliciting more stories, so if my books bring your own great story to mind and you would like to contribute it for the

next book, share it with me at either:  eric.baseballstories@gmail.com or  eric.concertstories@gmail.com   

 

A random question asked at a ballgame in April 2011 became a project which has been a labor of love.  I hope you love these stories as much as I do.