Jim Hawkins
Jim Hawkins' award-winning career covering Major League Baseball has spanned half a century. He has written eight books, including biographies of Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline, Jack Sanford’s Massachusetts hunting buddy Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, and ex-convict Ron LeFlore.
In 2013, he was nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame’s J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the highest honor that a baseball writer can receive. He is a member of Athletic and Academic Hall of Fame in his hometown of Superior, Wisconsin.
In 2013, he was nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame’s J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the highest honor that a baseball writer can receive. He is a member of Athletic and Academic Hall of Fame in his hometown of Superior, Wisconsin.
Books by Jim Hawkins
Jack Sanford: From Blightville to the Big Leagues

“Not in my wildest boyhood dreams did I ever envision that a World Series would come along and I’d be the seventh game pitcher.”
Despite all odds, and a grueling nine-year stint in the minors that would dash most any other ballplayer’s hope of reaching the major leagues, Jack Sanford found himself starring in the dramatic 1962 World Series, which pitted the San Francisco Giants against the mighty New York Yankees. This is the story of Jack’s turbulent journey from a working-class childhood in Wellesley, Massachusetts, to baseball’s ultimate stage; it is the story of perseverance in the face of continual discouragement; and it is the story of one boy’s greatest dream turning, in an instant, into the unshakable nightmare that would haunt him the rest of his life.
Despite all odds, and a grueling nine-year stint in the minors that would dash most any other ballplayer’s hope of reaching the major leagues, Jack Sanford found himself starring in the dramatic 1962 World Series, which pitted the San Francisco Giants against the mighty New York Yankees. This is the story of Jack’s turbulent journey from a working-class childhood in Wellesley, Massachusetts, to baseball’s ultimate stage; it is the story of perseverance in the face of continual discouragement; and it is the story of one boy’s greatest dream turning, in an instant, into the unshakable nightmare that would haunt him the rest of his life.