From Hot Firefighters to Sexy Baseball Players! Welcome back best-selling author Jennifer Bernard

I am always honored to introduce my friend and fellow Avon sister Jennifer Bernard--she writes the most wonderful, upbeat, fun-to-read stories and I know everyone will love them! Jennifer is joining us all the way from Homer, Alaska today with great news:  she has a brand new series out--and it's about my favorite sport:  baseball! Her awesome blog today about how baseball came to be The Great American Pasttime will leave you wanting your own copy of ALL OF ME.  Enjoy--and give a big GLIAS welcome to Jennifer Bernard.

Hi Everyone,

Did you enjoy your July 4th weekend? Did it include fireworks, barbecue, or maybe some baseball? I have a reason for asking this! I’m writing a new romance series about “America’s pastime,” and it occurred to me I wasn’t sure how baseball acquired that label.

I always assumed it came from being the nation’s favorite sport, but that’s debatable these days. Football draws much bigger TV audiences and revenue. So I checked with my close friend, Google, and discovered that it’s not quite what I thought.

Yes, back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, baseball was the most popular sport. But that was before TV, before the Internet, before video games and so many of the ways we entertain ourselves nowadays. When kids came home from school, they didn’t turn on the TV. They ran outside and played baseball in the streets or in fields. Baseball was how people spent their time. It was a topic that everyone could talk about with coworkers, strangers on the bus, neighbors -- a unifying bond, even between fans of rival teams. It truly was a big part of how Americans spent their leisure time. That’s why the term “America’s pastime” caught on.

Baseball was more than a sport, it was part of what wove America together.

But that was back then … what about now? Can baseball still be considered America’s pastime? Or has it been replaced with “Surfing the Web” or “Netflix” or “Farmville”?

I don’t know the answer to that, but here are a few random facts: 

“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is the third most frequently sung song in America, after Happy Birthday and The Star-Spangled Banner.

73,739,622 tickets were sold for Major League baseball games in 2014. That means a LOT of people actually left their TV’s or computers and went to a ballpark to see a game live. Baseball, unlike so much of our other entertainment, is something to be experienced in person rather than on a screen.

All of Minor League Baseball’s top 10 attendance years have been in the last decade. I’m including this fact because my series, LOVE BETWEEN THE BASES, is about a Triple A team from Texas, and I love seeing how popular Minor League Baseball is becoming. It’s just as competitive as the Majors, but more fun and less high-stakes. And a blast to write about.

ALL OF ME is the first book in this new series:

 

Jennifer Bernard, the USA Today bestselling author of the Bachelor Firemen series, scores another homerun with a brand-new series about sexy, single baseball players.

Playing for the Kilby Catfish is hotshot pitcher Caleb Hart’s last chance to salvage his career after a major league meltdown. But the day of his opener with the minor league team, Caleb strikes out with the gorgeous woman who is delivering a petition to run the unruly Catfish out of town. Now to stay in the lineup, Caleb will need to score big with the feisty brunette he can’t keep out of his thoughts.

After the nasty lies Sadie Merritt’s rich ex-boyfriend spread about her all over town, she’s lucky to have a job at all. She can’t afford to screw it up by falling for the player who is supposed to be helping her change the image of the fun-loving Catfish. But that’s easier said than done when Caleb’s voice alone is enough to make her pulse race. And when he surprises her with a mind-blowing kiss, she knows there’s no turning back.

WHERE TO PURCHASE ALL OF ME: 

EBook

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

KOBO
iBOOKS

Print

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

AVON/HARPERCOLLINS

You can read the first chapter of ALL OF ME on my website.

So what do you think? Does America still have an “America’s pastime,” or is our culture too fragmented these days? I have an e-copy of ALL OF ME to give to one commenter today!