This project began in Baton Rouge, with the encouragement of the Louisiana State University English Department. Thank you to everyone there, particularly Jennifer S. Davis, James P. Wilcox, William Demastes, and Phil Maciak for steering me through early drafts, discussing the intersection of sports and culture, and getting me into the football press box. I am grateful for the wonderful friends and creative community I found in Baton Rouge, especially Alyson Pomerantz and Sandra Wolle, Atom Atkinson, Katie Boland, Kevin Casper, Vincent Cellucci, Matt Dischinger, Emily Frank, Leslie Friedman, Lara Glenum, Zack Godshall and Jillian Hall, Robbie Howell, Jill and Mike Kantrow, James Long, Brad Pope, Hannah Reed, Will and Liz Torrey, Josh Wheeler, Dylan White and Annie Bauman, Jason and Ali Wolfe, and all the Zemels. Thanks to everyone at The Southern Review and LSU Press—contributors and colleagues—for your encouragement in person and through bighearted correspondence. And thank you especially to the Gehebers—Leah, Philip, Laurin, Aaron, plus Hayes Brian and Laura Bergeron—for welcoming me into the family.

Writer and editor friends, thank you for checking in on the book as well as its author over these past nine years. I’m particularly indebted to the friendships of Olivia Clare, Jenny Croft, Alan Grostephan, Christian Kiefer, Nick Mainieri, and James Scott, and I’ve been overwhelmed by the open arms and kind words of my New York colleagues since returning to the city. Thank you for breaking bread and for your encouragement. Anna Berman, Karisa Butler-Wall, Elana Fishman, Gwen Fuertes, Diana Greenwold, Lily Guenther, Jordana Heller, Katie Lorah, Donna Meredith, Rose Nestler, Gale Orcutt, Faye Reiff-Pasarew, Talia Shalev, and Charise Castro Smith: what good fortune, to have girlfriends like y’all—I find you inspiring every single day.

And thanks to my family, from my earliest baseball games in Omaha with Grandpa Rich to the many, many seasons of Mariners games, in Seattle and Phoenix, with my dad, David. We probably should have paid more attention to the game, but we were having too much fun. Jessi, thank you for being the best sister a gal could hope for. Brian, Dan, and Karen: thank you for making our family better, and for cheering me through the process of writing this book. Mom, thank you for the endless encouragement, the bottomless love, and the good reading recommendations. Keel, thank you for being my partner in reading, dog walks, and everything else—I may have started this book before we met, but I couldn’t have finished it without you and Willow.

Praise for The Cactus League

PRAISE FOR THE CACTUS LEAGUE

“There are probably more good novels about baseball than any other sport. More bad ones, too. Emily Nemens’s The Cactus League definitely belongs in that first lineup.”

—Charles McGrath, The New York Times Book Review