I put a post here a while back saying that I am publishing a book about the Houston Astros of the late-1960’s and early-1970’s, specifically how those teams could have/would have/should have been much better had there not been some organizational policies and had they not traded ao many great players like Mike Cuellar, Rusty Staub, Dave Giusti, and others. Imagine those guys with the core they still had of Jimmy Wynn, Joe Morgan, Bob Watson, Doug Rader, Larry Dierker, Don Wilson, and the spectacular Cesar Cedeno. My research has indicated that had those things been different, 1971 would have been that first expected elite season in Astros history, so I based my book off of my comp title, The Forgotten 1970 Chicago Cubs: Go and Glow, who's author, William Bike, has been incredibly helpful as I've put this together, as well as former Astros Larry Dierker, Norm Miller, George Culver, Tom Griffin, Scipio Spinks, Larry Yount, and front office executive Tal Smith when I've spoken to them. The book will cover some background (1965-1970), a month-by-month breakdown of the 1971 season, then two "What Could Have Been" chapters: The Team, forming the roster that could have been and using mathematics to discover the projected win/loss record, then The Postseason, where I used Whatifsports.com to simulate the 1971 postseason had the Astros made it that far. It ends with tidbits about each player and the Astrodome at the end.
This is being published by Huntsville Independent Press in Huntsville, AL, and I am set to promote it around Houston the weekend of September 19-23. As we've been playing with potential cover designs recently, what do yall think of this mockup that we're at so far? This is not the final, as the final cover will have the same font at the top as the Astros shooting star jerseys had back then ("Orange Crush" is the nickname the team gained early in 1971, hence the title, which I've gotten permision from the soda company to use), and Joe Morgan will be colorized, among other little things. Please let me know if you like it and if yall have any suggestions! Thank you!
P.S. I hope this doesn't violate self-promotion rules, as I'm certainly not meaning to. I'm just collecting feedback from people who would likely be the key market for this book so I want to see if it draws attention or not. Please don't sue me!
6 comments
I like it! Looking forward to reading it
Can you make the letters vertically or radially arched?
I like the cover overall and look forward to reading about the era of the team. I’m not a graphic designer, but Joe Morgan being in black and white while everything else is bright and colorful looks a little odd to me.
I’d change the text, but otherwise I like it
I think everyone has made some solid points. The wording looks a little Microsoft Word-y, but like you said, it’s a rough draft that will get cleaned up. More so commenting that this looks like an awesome book, man! I’ll check it out. Definitely a forgotten era that is overlooked in Astros history. Really cool you got all these Astros legends to interview for it too. I’m reminded a little of the Oakland A’s dynasty book, *Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic* only instead of a dynasty, you have what-could-have-been.
Why is the African fellow in black and white and the Caucasian fellow in color. That was my first thought, god speed