“Ballsy” Approach To Royal Wedding Day; Purple Mafia Profile Style

By Lake The Posts on April 29, 2011

I’m still trying to gauge my lack of social awareness this week. I’m absolutely dumbfounded by the incredible fanatacism surrounding today’s royal wedding.  This has become somewhat of a gender bender, meaning I’m finding not to many guys getting up to watch the event live, while most women I know can’t stop talking about it. Well, I can avoid topical matters, or better yet, take a spin at trying to find something tangental to make the Northwestern Athletics blog more timely.  Some would say it is “ballsy” to take on that challenge.  Literally.

The only real NU tie to the royal family came back in 1996 when Princess Di visited Northwestern’s campus as part of symposium on breast cancer. It caused quite a ruckus on campus from what I remember.  Today’s “connection” is quite a stretch.  We’re back with another Purple Mafia Profile and well, the only real tie is geography.  Former Wildcat catcher Josh Chetwynd has agreed to join us for a Q&A.  It seems like almost every Purple Mafia Profile, Josh, a 1993 graduate, has his own Wikipedia entry.  A London, England native, “Chety” grew up in Los Angeles and was a preferred walk-on at NU who earned both playing time and two time All Big Ten Academic honors while in Evanston.  He then spent ten years on Great Britain’s national baseball team while furthering his journalism career which includes stints and gigs for USA Today, US News & World Report, Hollywood Reporter and even the The Harvard Negotiation Law Review.  Chetwynd has had an extensive on-air career serving as MLB analyst on Great Britain’s Five network and he also does NFL work as well.  Most pressing, however, is the release of his new book (his third) titled The Secret History of Balls: The Stories Behind the Things We Love to Catch, Whack, Throw, Kick, Bounce and Bat‘.  Let’s get in to it….
LTP: I’ve got to ask. Did you get the invite to “THE” wedding?

JC: Hah. I think our invite was lost in the mail!

LTP: I’m channeling my inner-Michael Scott (don’t do it…) as we introduce your upcoming book (“that’s what she said!”, “ugh!” )- The Secret History of Balls: The Stories Behind the Things We Love to Catch, Whack, Throw, Kick, Bounce and Bat. Tell us how you came up with this concept and what your fellow Wildcat fans will enjoy about the book.
JC: I know the title is snicker worthy. While I promise it’s a fun book, for those looking for something R-rated (or even harder) I’m afraid this book is on the history of balls from the world of sports and recreation. My wife wanted the publishers to name the book “The History of Sports and Recreation As Told By Their Balls.” That would have been fun.

The story of how I committed to balls (ugh, sorry) involves a person I hope to be a future Wildcat — my son (no pressure). I was living in London with my family and my son, who was three at the time, and I headed over to a local playing field. I brought a baseball with me, which is something you don’t see everyday in England. We were walking around when we found a sliotar, which is the ball used in the Irish sport of hurling. Later we came across a tennis ball and it got me thinking. I did a bit of research and began to realize this might make an interesting topic.

Alas, Luke Donald didn’t make the chapter on the golf ball (ed note: but he DID make a nice, timely connection to the wedding – see below!)and there’s no Evan Eschmeyer in my write up on the basketball. Nevertheless, I think our Wildcat brethren will have a lot to sink their teeth into. I love taking topics that seem quirky and, by adding some context, offering stories that tell us a little bit about various cultures. The book I wrote previous to this one was on baseball in Europe — a topic that some might think worthy of a pamphlet. But I looked at how Americans tried to spread the game abroad and how and why different European countries had various attitudes toward the game. It ended up saying as much about those countries, I hope, as the sport itself. I think my book of balls (cue laugh track here) offers similar insight. Whether it’s obscure spheres like the Aussie Rules football and New Zealand’s ki or more basic ones like the baseball and tennis ball, the chapters are more than just how the balls were made. And, if that doesn’t work for you, I give the histories of the Nerf ball, stress ball, red playground ball, wiffle ball, tetherball and Magic 8 Ball (among others), which hopefully will be fun. All told, I cover more than 60 balls so I’m banking on the fact there’s something for everyone.
LTP:  Any insights you can spare about either the pigskin or the basketball that we might find interesting?

JC: Definitely. The story of the development of the football has a lot to do with the sport’s evolution from a game of mortal combat (scores of players were dying on the gridiron at the start of the twentieth century) to a game that was generally survivable. Thanks in part to Teddy Roosevelt getting involved, the fathers of football agreed to take a bit of the rugby out of the sport and include more passing. The problem was that even with the new rules, they needed a ball that could fly through the air better. Great coaches like Knute Rockne and George Halas recognized this problem and helped innovate new pigskins.
As for basketball, though the game is better known as hoops, the sport’s inventor James Naismith was more fixated on the ball when he devised his game. In his original 13 rules, nine talked about the ball and just five discussed the goals. Naismith came up with the basketball’s dimension in large part to help the game have the type of Christian ideals that he wanted the sport to embody (tell that to some of today’s players).
LTP:  Give us the backstory on how you went from concept to getting published by such a prestigious publisher (Penguin)? Perhaps some Wildcat mafia help?

JC: In fact, there was a Wildcat mafia connection. My book agent, Danielle Svetcov, is an NU alum. Unfortunately it ends there so if any Wildcat media folk want to show some love by mentioning the book, I’m in! I’d previously written two books for a small publisher that had been pretty well-received critically (but had been far from bestsellers). Still, I think those books gave me some street cred to take on a project with a bigger publisher. I’d also worked as a reporter for such publications as USA Today and U.S. News & World Report, which probably helped. After I came up with this idea, I put together a pretty long proposal outlining what balls I wanted to write about and a couple of sample chapters. I gave the proposal to Danielle who sent it around publishing land and, as they say, it only takes one. That one happened to be Penguin.

LTP: You were a two-time All-Big Ten Academic member on the Wildcat baseball team and are clearly a sports fan as a commentator on Great Britain’s network, Five, where you cover NFL and MLB. Tell us about your current position and how Northwestern still figures in to your life.

JC: Northwestern always looms large in my life. I met my wife, Jennifer, there and my best friend to this day (name check: Dan Snierson) (ed note: hey, I know him too – former Purple Mafia Profilee from Entertainment Weekly) was my roommate for most of my time there. From a sports perspective, I take great pride in having spent four years playing baseball for the Cats. No doubt the sports program generally has come such a long way since I was playing from 1990 to 1993. Amazingly, the baseball head coach (Paul Stevens) and the catching coach (Joe Keenan) are still there. I was primarily a backup catcher and Joe in particular had a huge impact on me. He was one of those coaches who gave equal time and instruction to everyone no matter where you sat on the depth chart. I was a recruited walk-on so I didn’t come in a superstar, but he worked with me and I came out a reasonably respectable catcher (decent enough to play a year of independent professional baseball in the States and professionally overseas). In addition, in sort of a flukey situation, I was born in England and I ended up playing for Great Britain’s national baseball team for 10 years. I played in European Championships and an Olympic qualifier. Without Joe working with me, I don’t think I would have been nearly good enough to have had all those experiences.

As you mentioned, I also ended up getting lucky enough to broadcast Major League Baseball games on television in Britain for the better part of seven seasons. I know many here would be surprised, but there is a small but loyal baseball following in Great Britain. (Sadly, I don’t think William and Kate are among them…I need to work on that.) I now do a similar job on BBC Radio. Again, my experiences at NU led to my other baseball opportunities and then to the fantastic media gigs. So by the transitive postulate, I’m truly indebted to Northwestern.

LTP: How in tune are you with the ‘Cats football team and what are your thoughts on the program?

JC: I certainly watch games during the season and know the players. It’s awe-inspiring to see how the program has changed since my freshman year when we went a fully blemished 0-11. It’s crazy to think we were still literally laking the posts my junior season when we beat Wake Forest — even though we’d won two games my sophomore year. I love that there are now expectations for bowl games and it shouldn’t be taken for granted. I’m a big Fitz fan. I admired him as a player and even more so as a coach. He has that dedication to excellence that makes me want to strap on some gear. Though, at this point (or any point after the age of 18), it would be an ugly site.

LTP: Favorite in person moment with Wildcat football is…? Favorite current player?
JC: Without a doubt, it was going to the Rose Bowl in 1995. The final result sucked, but just being there playing USC was completely surreal. It makes me sick to this day to hear the USC fight song, but we battled so well that day.
Favorite current player: Dan Persa…how could he not be? I just hope he doesn’t take the weight of the world on his shoulders this season.

LTP: As a displaced ‘Cats fan, shed some light on Wildcat football get togethers if they even exist in London.
It’s funny, I had a friend from NU who moved out to England and he was bumming because he couldn’t watch Cats games. I was doing the TV show and was able to convince the folks at the studio to get us the ESPN feed one year when NU was playing Ohio State. We went in there in the middle of the night with a big bag of pretzels and just sat in the studio watching the Cats.
That said I think it’s gotten easier to watch a Cats game. For those traveling to London, I’d recommend Bodeans in Soho. Great BBQ and if you slip somebody 10 pounds you can probably get them to televise Northwestern — though I don’t think they can get the Big Ten Network.

LTP: The ‘Cats baseball team doesn’t get too much spotlight, but there are quite a few alums that have made some headlines like oh, Joe Girardi, and one of your teammates Mark Loretta. Share some stories about your fellow ‘Cat teammates that we don’t know about. Any really interesting careers among your fellow alums?

JC: Beyond Joe Girardi and Mark Loretta, there’s also JA Happ, who is currently pitching in the big leagues. My closest friend on the team, George Graziadei, still keeps in really close contact with most of the guys we played with. It seems almost to a guy, they all ended up doing really well (chalk one up for the Northwestern education). During Mark Loretta’s career, I ran into him a few times while doing broadcast work. It was sort of weird, but, truthfully, his success couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Great teammate, smart guy and an excellent player.

Also, there is one former teammate with a road less traveled story. Dale Torborg, who was a ’94 graduate and son of former Major League manager Jeff Torborg, became a professional wrestler after a brief minor league career. He wrestled in the WCW among other circuits and, at one time, wrestled under the alias The MVP. He also spent time as “The KISS Demon,” which I’m sure he was thrilled to do as he was a big KISS fan.

Frankly, I suspect that you’ll see more recent generations of baseball alums entering into baseball front offices. We’ve seen so many Ivy League guys like Theo Epstein do it, I don’t see why Northwestern alums shouldn’t be there as well.

LTP: How do we get the book?
JC: The book comes out officially on Tuesday (May 3). It’ll be in book stores, but if people want the easiest path to getting a copy, it’s probably Amazon.

LTP: Thanks Josh, let’s serve it up for a regular LTP community member and start upticking the needle on advance orders by clicking here and following the Amazon instructions!

Tweet Tweet!

OK, here is more direct link to the royal wedding with a purple filter. Thanks to Willie for the tweet/tip, but below is Luke Donald’s tweet to the royal couple from earlier today. 

Draft Week Posts..

No, I haven’t forgotten about the draft. We’ll be taking a look at some of the draft picks this weekend and seeing how many names conjure up instant Northwestern-related memories – both good and bad. Man, was I happy to see Ryan Kerrigan in the NFL and out of hair.