FanShot

Jeter was beaten to the punch by Jim Brosnan

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Jim Brosnan, though, was letting readers in on a quieter, simpler secret: what it’s like inside a big-league uniform. Sometimes literally, as in this passage after he was traded midseason to the Reds: "Life in the Cincinnati clubhouse in midsummer is lived in the raw. Pregame uniform is jock strap and shower clogs. The thought of putting on a flannel uniform over woolen socks and undershirt starts the sweat rolling. ‘How many electric fans you got in here, Chesty?’ I asked the clubhouse man. ‘Not enough,’ he said." Brosnan followed "The Long Season" with another book, "Pennant Race," but, as with all athletes, his days on the field were numbered. In 1963 he was traded to the Chicago White Sox, who warned him that he must not write or publish anything during the season. By 1964 he was out of baseball and spent the rest of his life in Morton Grove sustaining himself as a freelance writer, including baseball stories for Boys’ Life magazine.