Description
A short story about Rickey Henderson’s night after breaking the stolen base record. An interview with Mets legend Darryl Strawberry. An essay by a British fan about gravitating toward the Blue Jays Home Run Jacket. Art of a shirtless Henry David Thoreau swinging a bat in Walden Pond. A poem where the ghost of Moses Fleetwood Walker talks to Ernie Banks. A comic about the unheralded journeyman Matt Duffy. The Twin Bill’s EARLY INNINGS (.406 Press, March 18, 2025) features all of these and more as it celebrates the rich history of baseball and the vibrant game of today with this anthology of their first four years.
With over 200 pages of baseball poems, short stories, creative nonfiction, and full-page color illustrations, EARLY INNINGS showcases the rich literary side of baseball. Featuring 29 poems, 16 pieces of creative nonfiction, nine short stories, two interviews, two comics, and cover art of Sidd Finch, EARLY INNINGS is sure to be a hit with any baseball fan.
The Twin Bill was founded in 2020 and publishes quarterly online at www.thetwinbill.com and in print. Over 18 issues, they’ve published 130 poems, 74 creative nonfiction pieces, 67 short stories, and 180 pieces of art. In 2023 they inaugurated contests for the E. Ethelbert Miller Poetry Prize, Sidd Finch Fiction Prize, and Jackie Mitchell Poetry Prize with the winners getting an engraved crystal baseball trophy. The following year, they began awarding trophies for the Best Baseball Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry books of the year.
“Like a box of ballpark Cracker Jack, there’s a delightful surprise on every page of The Twin Bill’s EARLY INNINGS. This is a collection to be savored, a loving and lyrical celebration of the art of baseball.” — Tyler Kepner, The Athletic
“EARLY INNINGS is a sold out ballpark filled with writers and illustrators. The poems are stories, the stories are pictures and the pictures are memorable…I suggest you find a bookmark and pray for extra innings. Four years of Twin Bill is not enough.” — E. Ethelbert Miller, Grammy-nominated poet and author of the If God Invented Baseball trilogy
“In four short years, The Twin Bill has become an institution on the sports literary scene. There’s only one other way legends are created so quickly, through our great game—baseball. A Hall of Fame trajectory can be charted after a few great seasons, and Early Innings makes a very convincing case for The Twin Bill.” — Sandra Marchetti, author of Aisle 228 and DIORAMA
“EARLY INNINGS is an exciting selection of poems, stories, and artwork. Their wide-ranging topics will play on your emotions as they cover the field of the game we truly love, baseball. And imaginative paintings, inspired by each piece, wonderfully complement the written word. I look forward to gifting copies to share with my baseball-loving friends.”—Joe Berton, aka Sidd Finch
“Early Innings provides abundant proof that baseball might have been invented for sport but serves a secondary purpose as fuel for thought-provoking storytelling from poets and writers alike. If the ‘early innings’ are this compelling, then we are in for a treat as The Twin Bill continues to spotlight writers writing about the most compelling sport in the known universe.” – Mark Stevens, author of The Fireballer.
