SWAG��Ƶ

As major and minor league baseball teams prepare for spring training, the SWAG��Ƶ’s Josh Pahigian has published a new book titled The Amazing Baseball Adventure (Globe Pequot Press/Lyons Press).

This latest title in Pahigian’s portfolio of baseball guide books presents a visually stunning road-trip through pro baseball’s wacky, wondrous, and revered ballpark attractions, detailing more than 100 ballpark features that make attending games extra special for fans.

Pahigian -- who is a fellow in the SWAG��Ƶ Center for Global Humanities, adjunct instructor in the Department of English and writer in the Office of Communications -- opens the book by telling the story of how he got the idea for it while sitting in the stands at the Portland Sea Dogs’ Hadlock Field. Watching a 2015 game that spanned 16-innings, Pahigian and other fans were reluctant to leave, even as the clock passed midnight, because they wanted to see the park’s elusive lighthouse, which rises from behind the center field fence after the Sea Dogs win.

“Sitting there on that balmy summer’s night, I realized the game’s landscape offers a vast array of quirky ballpark features, each befitting its local city and team, and decided to tell those attractions’ stories,” explained Pahigian. “I hope the book makes the game’s treasures more accessible to fans.”

Through engaging story-telling and color photography, Pahigian captures the essence of each ballpark flourish—from the iconic ivy adorning the outfield walls of Chicago’s Wrigley Field to the Sausage Race at the Milwaukee Brewers’ Miller Park to the delicious biscuits at the home park of the aptly-named Montgomery Biscuits. And yes, there is a chapter on Portland’s ballpark lighthouse as well.

The baseball website Plate Coverage ran an article about The Amazing Baseball Adventure on the day of the book’s release, February 1. In addition, the Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier and the Forecaster published articles about the book.

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