Tim Green's Blog, page 3
March 11, 2017
Derek Jeter and Tim Green team up for “Baseball Genius”
Two big sports stars are turning a new page in their retirements. New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter is teaming up with the Atlanta Falcons’ Tim Green to tackle the world of children’s books.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/derek-jeter-tim-green-team-up-for-baseball-genius-childrens-book/
“Baseball Genius” by Tim Green and Derek Jeter
Published by the Jeter Children’s imprint of Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS, “Baseball Genius” tells the story of Jalen, an average kid with an above-average talent.
Jalen, named after Jeter’s 5-year-old nephew, also encounters bullying and taunting as a biracial child.
“What we’ve tried to do is incorporate the lessons I’ve learned through my parents, obviously my sister and I, and what we teach our kids through our foundation,” Jeter said. “We try to do that with diverse characters and interesting stories. These are issues that kids are facing nowadays. It’s front and center. You really can’t shy away from it.”
“The thing about books is when kids read, they get smarter,” Green said. “They perform better in school. But most importantly, when kids read, they get a little kinder because they put themselves in someone else’s shoes. So that’s why I think it’s important that our characters are a little different.”
Green said the story is about perseverance, kindness, loyalty and friendship.
“So there’s all these kinds of visceral things in the story that kids are going to — you know, it’s going to sink in,” Green said.
But that only works if the book succeeds at its goal of entertaining young readers.
“So short chapters, lots of action. And then we take them into the world of the New York Yankees and Major League Baseball,” Green said. “Derek’s insight into that — we really for readers, we pulled back the curtain on that experience.”
They’re also sending a message with a female character who wants to be either president, a TV show host or a sports agent.
“In all of these books I’ve written in the middle grade genre — this is the 19th and Derek and I have more to do — but I always have a good strong girl character. Not only for girl readers but for boy readers so that they see, you know, what is Derek’s perception and my perception of a girl, and it’s strong,” Green said.
March 8, 2017
Derek Jeter teams up with former Syracuse football star Tim Green to write book
Syracuse, N.Y. — After deciding that he needed a little bit of help in the writing of his 35th book, the subject of which is baseball, Tim Green turned to a guy who knows a little bit about the national pastime.
Derek Jeter.
Yeah, that Derek Jeter.
Baseball Genius Cover Art.jpegTim Green and Derek Jeter have teamed up on a new book.
The book, the latest in Green’s line of literature for young readers, is called “Baseball Genius.” It’s about a kid on a 13-and-under team who uses his gift of being able to predict the kind of pitch a pitcher will throw to help save the career of an aging New York Yankee.
Who better, then, to help Green take his readers behind the scenes of the Yankees than Jeter, who played shortstop for New York across a brilliant career that lasted 20 seasons before retiring (with a lifetime batting average of .305) in 2014?
Thus, Green has a co-author in Jeter. Together, they developed the main character of “Baseball Genius,” Jalen DeLuca, and named him after Jeter’s real-life nephew.
Green — the former Syracuse University All-American football player, eight-year NFL veteran and College Football Hall of Fame inductee — will appear with Jeter, live, on the Wednesday edition of “CBS This Morning.” They will be interviewed about their collaboration on “Baseball Genius” during the 8 o’clock hour.
“Baseball Genius,” the first in a trilogy of baseball books to be co-authored by Green and Jeter, is scheduled to be released today. It is a product of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing and retails in hardcover editions for $16.95.
Contact Bud Poliquin anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-416-2021
(Bud also can be heard weekday mornings between 10-12 on the “Bud & the Manchild” sports-talk radio show on ESPN Radio 97.7 FM, 100.1 FM and 1200 AM.)
January 27, 2017
Football player-turned-author wants kids to discover the joys of reading
Former NFL star pens sports-related books for middle schoolers
By Alyson Ward, Houston Chronicle
Landon knows the boys behind him are making fun of him.
He can’t hear everything they say, and he knows he shouldn’t turn around: “Nothing good ever came from three boys laughing and gawking, but he felt drawn to it the way he might poke at a bruise to test how much it really hurt.”
Landon’s a seventh-grader who just wants to play football. He’s got the size and the will – but there’s an obstacle in the way, one that has always made him feel like an outsider: He’s deaf, and kids call him Frankenstein and a “giant from outer space” because of the cochlear implants he wears.
That’s where the action starts in Tim Green’s new book for middle graders, “Left Out.” And, like a lot of Green’s fiction for young people, this story was inspired by real life.
For eight years, Green played defense for the Atlanta Falcons. Now he writes suspense novels for adults and chapter books for middle graders. On a book tour a couple of years ago, Green met a young reader in Arkansas named Brett who played football and wore cochlear implants for a hearing impairment. Soon after, in Kentucky, Green met another young athlete with cochlear implants. An idea started to take hold.
More Information
“I was thinking about my next book and thought this would be a great story,” he said – one that would help young readers better understand what it’s like to live with a disability.
Green wanted to understand, too, so he consulted frequently with both the boys while writing “Left Out,” using Skype to ask them questions about their lives at school and in sports.
“Left Out” may be about a kid who has a disability, but “all of my stories have main characters who have something that’s broken in their lives,” Green says. “I’m really passionate about kids becoming kinder people and more understanding of other people through the act of reading.”
Green will talk to young readers in Houston Sunday as part of Inprint’s Cool Brains! reading series for young people, free events that give kids a chance to meet their favorite authors. He’ll talk about sports, writing and – above all – the importance of reading.
After he retired from football in the ’90s, Green started out writing suspense novels for adults. He branched out into kids’ books at the urging of an editor. His first book for children, “Football Genius,” was a bestseller, and he followed that up with more sports-themed chapter books: “Football Hero,” “The Big Time,” “Deep Zone” and several more. He also has set a few stories – “Pinch Hit,” “Baseball Great,” “Best of the Best” – in the world of baseball.
It isn’t hard for Green to capture the voice and tone of middle-grade kids. “That’s a time of my life that’s really vivid,” Green says. Even back then, Green wanted to be a novelist. “I had two dreams,” he says. “One was to play in the NFL; the other to become a writer.”
He studied literature and writing on a football scholarship at Syracuse University, then went to law school in the off-season while playing in the NFL. Now he and his wife have five kids (the youngest is a fourth-grader), he works as a lawyer and he churns out books in his spare time.
Green’s next book will be out in March – “Baseball Genius,” which he co-wrote with Derek Jeter, the former New York Yankee who has made his own post-sports career writing books for kids.
And Green has recruited more pro athletes to help him spread the word about reading. The NFL’s Play 60 campaign urges kids to be physically active for at least 60 minutes a day; Green has added his own campaign, Read 20. With players from six NFL teams, he visits schools to stress the importance of reading at least 20 minutes every day.
“Every day,” he says, young readers (or their parents) will Facebook or email him to say that, while they never had much use for reading before, they simply devour his books. Often those new readers are athletes or sports fans who were drawn in by the lure of a football or baseball story.
“I’m really proud of that,” Green says. “Once a kid has that experience, books take on a whole new meaning.”
January 18, 2017
Meet Tim in Texas on Jan 29th!
In celebration of Houston hosting Super Bowl LI, Cool Brains! Inprint Readings for Young People presents an afternoon with Tim Green. The former NFL player from the Atlanta Falcons is a New York Times bestselling author of 18 middle-grade novels and 12 books for adults.
He will share his latest sports-centered novel for kids, “Left Out,” which deals with challenges faced by a deaf teenager who joins the school football team.
This is a complimentary event and open to the public.
When
Sunday, January 29
3 pm
Where
Meyerland Performing & Visual Arts Middle School
10410 Manhattan Drive
Houston, TX 77096
Jeter & Green Team Up to Co-Author “Baseball Genius”
NEW YORK, Dec. 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Recently-retired baseball legend Derek Jeter is co-authoring his next book alongside former NFL-player and prolific author Tim Green. “Baseball Genius” will be published by Simon & Schuster and is slated for a March 2017 release in eBook and hardcover formats.
The book is geared towards young readers with an insightful and fun fictional journey of a young baseball fan with a particular talent (or sixth sense) for predicting pitches. In the story, he gets into trouble after breaking in to the batting cage of a fictional star ballplayer on the Yankees — but finds a way to make amends by helping the baseball star get out of his hitting slump.
Green has authored over 30 books for adults and children and is a New York Times Best Seller. His book “Football Genius” attained best-seller status with a somewhat similar premise to “Baseball Genius”– of a talented young player with a sixth-sense for predicting every football play before it happens. This latest book will showcase Green’s seasoned knack for storytelling along with Jeter’s one-of-a-kind perspective on baseball life.
Jeter, the future Hall of Fame Yankee shortstop, has several books to his credit: a three-book series called “The Contract” and “Jeter Unfiltered”, which was among the top selling sports books in 2015. Those books are published through Jeter’s partnership with Simon & Schuster, ‘Jeter Publishing,’ who is also publishing “Baseball Genius.”
The co-authors are as accomplished as any writing duo in recent memory.
During one of his speaking events, Green told of how his collaboration with Jeter came about. He was approached directly by the baseball great about collaborating on a book about baseball. “He was wonderful. What a wonderful person,” said Green of his co-author, the former Yankee captain.
About Tim Green
Tim Green was an All-American defensive end at Syracuse before graduating as the university’s co-valedictorian in 1986. That year, Green was drafted in the first round by the Atlanta Falcons. After retiring in 1993, he graduated from Syracuse University’s College of Law in 1994. He has authored 34 books and has called NFL games for FOX, and has served as both a legal and football analyst on major television networks. He is a co-founder and managing partner of the reputable law group in Upstate New York, Team Green Lawyers. Aside from a busy career as a lawyer, author and television personality, he travels and speaks to young students about the virtues of reading and academics. One-hundred-percent of his speaking fees go towards purchasing books for schools, libraries and kids who lack access to them.
About Derek Jeter
Derek Jeter, meanwhile, is a 5-time World Series champion, former World Series MVP and a 14-time all-star. As his celebrated career came to a close, he launched his own publication, The Player’s Tribune, consisting of pro athletes as lead writers and journalists.
“Baseball Genius” becomes available online and at bookstores March 7, 2017.
For Press Inquiries about this release, please call (213) 332-9255
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SOURCE Team Green Lawyers
A Great Review by School Library Journal
GREEN, Tim & Derek Jeter. Baseball Genius. 352p. ebook available. S. & S./Aladdin. Mar. 2017. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9781481468640. POP
Gr 5-8–Green teams up with Jeter in his latest piece of sports fiction. Jalen is the son of an Italian immigrant. He lives with his father, who works long days at his diner trying to make ends meet. Jalen has serious baseball talent and has just made a travel team. The only problem is that he needs some extra cash to pay for his team fees. Jalen’s friends Cat and Daniel live near a Major League Baseball player’s house, and Yankees star James “JY” Yager routinely signs batting practice balls and sells them to benefit a youth sports foundation. Jalen knows that if he can get his hands on a few of those balls, he can easily sell them on eBay to pay for his travel team fees. What he does not see coming is an injured ankle keeping Yager home from a Yankees road trip—and Jalen is caught red-handed. Jalen tells Yager that he has the ability to read pitchers and knows which pitch any guy in the pros will throw before he even gets into his windup. Yager is on the verge of being replaced by a younger player, and his sole shot at staying on the Yankees’ roster is by going four-for-four in his next game. If Jalen can help him out from the stands, Yager will pay his travel team fees. The manager of the Yankees, however, has an entirely different agenda. Green is a prolific sports fiction writer, and having Jeter’s name grace the cover will keep this book in demand. Green does a nice job incorporating diverse characters throughout the narrative. Despite a predictable story, this title is sure to circulate. VERDICT Bound to be popular among Green fans and sports fiction middle grade readers.–Carli Sauer, Carmel Middle School, IN
School Library Journal, February 2017
December 15, 2016
BASEBALL GENIUS KIRKUS REVIEW
BASEBALL GENIUS
Author: Tim Green
Author: Derek Jeter
Publication Date: March 7, 2017
Category: Fiction
Hooking up with a renowned shortstop-turned-publisher, Green shows that the premise of his Football Genius (2007) plays just as well in another sport. It’s not a straight remake, but Green does recycle select plot elements and character types along with said premise. Hot to play for the local 13-and-under Rockets despite its starting pitcher, who is both a bully and the favored son of the team’s brutal coach, Jalen steals a bag of autographed baseballs from aging Yankees’ superstar James Yager to peddle for the requisite $990. Caught, he escapes punishment by claiming so insistently that he can predict pitches that the skeptical but slumping Yager brings him to Yankee Stadium for a tryout. Jalen does have a gift, though it turns out to be a fitful one. Green’s biracial protagonist (white and black) leads a cast that includes a struggling single dad who speaks in a cheesy Italian accent (“I take-a you shoes off….You close-a the eyes”), a standard-issue spunky-girl pal, and an admixture of actual sports personalities and athletes—including the likewise biracial Jeter, who claims his shared title-page credit by offering encouraging platitudes in a gratuitous cameo. The tale offers plenty of sports action as it scrambles from base to base past sudden obstacles and personal challenges. A bunt at best, but Green’s a good enough storyteller to keep readers in the game. (Fiction. 10-13)
Fiona Simpson
Editorial Director, Aladdin
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
212-698-2848
November 30, 2016
5 things to know about the Falcons on Tuesday Nov.29
Here are five things to know about the Falcons on Tuesday:
1. Injury report. Defensive end Adrian Clayborn suffered a knee injury against the Cardinals and there is an ESPN tweet/report, which cites unknown “sources” that he’ll be out for a month. Falcons coach Dan Quinn will give an official injury report from the team today or Wednesday.
2. Power rankings. The power rankings are out. How high are the Falcons?
3. Defense has been hit by injuries. There’s nothing positive about the Falcons losing Desmond Trufant to season-ending surgery or the news that defensive end Adrian Clayborn reportedly also is set for a procedure. The defense has been vulnerable to big pass plays and now the Falcons will make their final push for the playoffs without their best cornerback and a key pass rusher.
4. NFL is soft, but headed in right direction. We talked to several former NFL and Falcons players including Buddy Curry, Bobby Butler, Jeff Bostic, Kevin Butler, Scott Woerner and Chuck Smith. They shared their views on the league from the slow pace of the games to the crack down on celebrations.
5. Falcons and bestselling author Tim Green team up for Play60/Read 20 event. (I’d personally flip this to Play20/Read 60). The Falcons and the NFL have advocated 60 minutes of activity a day for kids across America to promote physical fitness. Now, the team is adding character building and education to that message. For the second year in a row, the Falcons are teaming up with NFL veteran and NY Times Bestselling author Tim Green for a PLAY60/READ20 event on Tuesday, November 29 at Lake Windward Elementary School in Alpharetta.
D. Orlando Ledbetter
November 29, 2016
ACJ.com
http://atlantafalcons.blog.ajc.com/2016/11/29/5-things-to-know-about-the-falcons-on-tuesday-16/
October 17, 2016
CNFL hosts Play 60/Read 20 in Frisco
Sylvia Kim skim@starlocalmedia.com
The National Football League recently hosted its second annual Play 60/Read 20 event.
Taking place in Frisco for the first time, Dallas Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr led football drills to help promote an active lifestyle, and former NFL player Tim Green finished the event by reading from his latest novel to encourage reading and the importance of education.
The dual event worked to foster two assets for elementary-age students: physical activity and activity of the mind through reading. For 60 minutes, Carr and area youth took over the plaza in front of the Frisco Public Library on Monday.
Participants were split up into teams and rotated through different stations and activities.
“I was a big fan of the event with its added component of reading and literacy and stressing the importance of just being active with healthy lifestyle choices,” Carr said. “Lots of athletes use their platform for fitness, but I think it’s important to use our platform to stress the importance of education as well.
“Showing that it’s actually cool to read books and care about your education and future is how I hope to use my platform in a positive way.”
The event was Carr’s and Green’s second time participating in conjunction with the Dallas Cowboys. Last year, the Play 60/Read 20 took place in Dallas ISD. But with the Dallas Cowboys relocating their world headquarters to Frisco, the event also moved locations.
Prior to the creation of Play 60/Read 20, the Dallas Cowboys held a Junior Training Camp schools program that only featured the 60 minutes of play. But Green, a former NFL lineman and best-selling author, approached the Cowboys to help form the reading portion.
“I’ve visited over 1,000 schools all over the country in the last 11 years since I started writing middle-grade novels,” Green said. “There’s a consistent theme I’ve found of teachers trying to get their kids to read 20 minutes a day. Kids who do that perform better in school and are also more empathetic towards other people.”
After the 60 minutes of play, Green led students and families into the Frisco City Council Chambers at City Hall, where he read from his latest middle school novel “Left Out,” a story about a deaf student who finds his identity through football.
Play 60/Read 20 isn’t exclusive to the Dallas Cowboys. Last year, the New York Giants, Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons also held the event. The New England Patriots and Denver Broncos took part in the program this year.
October 13, 2016
Chicago Bear, author visit Skokie to get kids moving and reading
`Chicago Bears long snapper Patrick Scales recently wound up spending his one day off a week hiking footballs – only this time, into the waiting hands of students at Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies in Skokie.
“This is what I do every Sunday,” Scales told the group of kids gathered around him to participate in the event, part of the NFL’s “Play 60,” a youth health and fitness campaign.
According to the Bears, “‘Play 60′ focuses on making the next generation of kids the most active and healthy by encouraging them to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day.”
“Play 60″ at Bessie Rhodes also included “Read 20,” which encourages children to read for 20 minutes a day. That message was delivered by author and former NFL player Tim Green, who spoke inside the school auditorium.
Bessie Rhodes was first asked whether it wanted to participate in “Play 60/Read 20″ through an independent bookstore in Naperville, said school library media specialist Tracy Hubbard. Adding the reading component to the program was especially important, she said.
“Not every kid is convinced that reading is the best thing for them,” Hubbard said. “Some of those kids might be more oriented toward sports.”
Bessie Rhodes began its special day with Scales overseeing a long snapping station while school faculty members engaged students in football-related physical activities at other stations.
Scales said whenever he and other players attend “Play 60″ events, students respond well.
“They love it,” he said. “They look up to any professional athlete, and they see us on TV and they think it’s really great. It’s fun to put smiles on their faces.”
The long snapper said he volunteers for the events because he wants to see students “get a better grasp on how they can help themselves physically as well as nutritionally.”
Chicago Bear, author visit Skokie to get kids moving and reading
Chicago Bears long snapper Patrick Scales and author and former NFL player Tim Green recently visited the Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies in Skokie to promote physical fitness and reading.
But he said he also likes the idea of adding the importance of reading to the message.
“Hopefully, they’ll realize their mind is a very powerful tool, and reading is a great way to sharpen that tool and make them a better person,” he said.
Green said he wrote more than a dozen books for adults before beginning a series of novels for young readers set in the world of sports. He said he approached the NFL and some football teams about adding a reading component to “Play 60.”
“I love writing books for kids,” he told the students. “I learned that kids who read 20 minutes a day get smarter. I call reading weightlifting for your brain.”
Green said just as no one would dream of trying to make it to the NFL without lifting weights, the same should apply to reading.
“All it takes to become a reader and understand that books can be awesome is one book,” Green said. “One. But it’s got to be the right book.”
At Bessie Rhodes, he and Scales read three chapters from his latest work for kids, a novel called “Left Out.” It tells the story of a deaf child who has always wanted to be like everybody else but has faced obstacles all of his life.
The Bessie Rhodes students also each received a free copy of the book.
Hubbard said the day’s event was about imparting to students that everyone needs reading and exercise in their lives.
“Reading is fun. Exercise is fun,” she said. “Whether you’re an NFL player or whether you’re going to be a CEO of a bank, all of these things will help you have a much richer life.”
misaacs@pioneerlocal.com
Twitter: @SKReview_Mike
Copyright © 2016, Chicago Tribune
NFL Chicago Bears Patrick Scales
