Meet author Anne Keene as she discusses her new book, Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, at a luncheon event at The Poinsett Club on Thursday, April 4 at noon.
The event is sponsored by Bob Howard’s Military History Bookclub but is open to the public.
Tickets are $54, and include a donation to a military charity and lunch. Advance reservations are required, and ticket costs cannot be refunded if canceled within 72 hours of the event. Attire is business casual (no jeans). Fiction Addiction will be selling Anne Keene’s books on site, but they encourage attendees to reserve books when you order your tickets. Following remarks from Anne, she will be available to sign books. Tickets and books can be purchased online at www.fiction-addiction.com, at the store, or by calling Fiction Addiction at 864-675-0540.
In 1943, while the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals were winning pennants and meeting in that year’s World Series, one of the nation’s strongest baseball teams practiced on a skinned-out college field in the heart of North Carolina. Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain were among a cadre of fighter-pilot cadets who wore the Cloudbuster Nine baseball jersey at an elite Navy training school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
As a child, Anne Keene’s father, Jim Raugh, suited up as the team batboy and mascot. He got to know his baseball heroes personally, watching players hit the road on cramped, tin-can buses, dazzling factory workers, kids, and service members at dozens of games, including a war-bond exhibition with Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium.
Jimmy followed his baseball dreams as a college All-American but was crushed later in life by a failed major-league bid with the Detroit Tigers. He would have carried this story to his grave had Anne not discovered his scrapbook from a Navy school that shaped America’s greatest heroes including George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, John Glenn, and Paul “Bear” Bryant.
With the help of rare images and insights from World War II baseball veterans such as Dr. Bobby Brown and Eddie Robinson, the story of this remarkable team is brought to life for the first time in The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II.
If you cannot make the event, you can reserve a personalized copy of the author’s book by contacting Fiction Addiction in advance at 864-675-0540 or at info@fiction-addiction.com.