Pinstriped Penance

Local author grew up on the Yankees, matured into an O's fan

by Matthew Taylor

A Yankee fan publishing a book about the Orioles? If that's not "man bites dog," I don't know what is.

From The Catonsville Times, the story of Tom Flynn and his book "Baseball in Baltimore."

"Having grown up as a New York Yankee fan, Tom Flynn heard tales about the glory days of that storied franchise.

When he moved to Charm City, the Catonsville resident discovered his adopted hometown also had a deep and rich history of professional baseball dating back to the 1800s.

The funny thing is, Flynn, 42, came of age near the end of a decade -- 1965 to 1975 -- when the Yankees didn't win a pennant.

'I was a kid in the early '70s and the Yankees were dogs,' Flynn said. 'The way we got through was (how) my parents and uncle all reminded me (about) Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Elston Howard.'"

Here's a link to the book on Amazon (the same source for the image above).