Hitting the “Big Fly”: Preserving a Father’s Legacy with John Simone

Cyclical family love is something we should all cherish and preserve. For John Simone, former Syracuse Chiefs General Manager, you can also carry on their legacy. Born and raised in Syracuse, New York, John Simone and his sister Wendy Shoen-Simone made a decision 10 years ago that would change the trajectory of their lives: telling the stories of Tex Simone: The Man Who Saved Baseball in Syracuse. In collaboration with Canadian baseball historian, author, and educator William Humber, the trio was able to show deep reverence for Anthony “Tex” Simone, the man who saved baseball not just once, but twice!

One of John and Wendy’s main goals for Tex Simone was to show both the Syracuse and baseball communities that Tex’s legacy and philanthropic work extended past baseball to the love he showed his family. In fact, Tex was a jack-of-all-trades: he had “athletic prowess” in baseball and basketball at North High School, fought in the Korean War with the United States Army and was honorably discharged, and worked with baseball legends such as Casey Stengel, Al Kaline, and Mickey Mantle to lead an organization. 

From there, Tex was able to build a minor league baseball franchise along with a new stadium in Syracuse to keep baseball going there. When beginning his career with the Syracuse Chiefs through work with the grounds crew at Macarthur Stadium, he kept traversing through positions until he became the Syracuse Chiefs business manager and public relations director. His upward trajectory continued when he became the general manager, and later the Chief Operating Officer who debuted the P&C Stadium (renamed Alliance Bank Stadium).  

With all of these achievements that altered baseball history, it’s no surprise that John looked up to his father, wanting to be involved in the baseball cause too. John makes it clear to us that this is not just a story of baseball, but a story of dedication, love, and persistence as a family man through the best and worst times in life.                                

John spoke with me in more detail about his father, who was a “minor league executive for a number of years.” This book was something that he, his sister, and his dad always wanted to pursue. However, this wouldn’t only cover the baseball part about Tex, but his personal life as well, with “his growing up in an Italian neighborhood, immigrant parents, being a three-sport athlete, serving in the Korean War, just a multitude of things that happened that allowed him to succeed.” 

John also explained how this would be a “great reading for people who knew him.” Since people who knew Tex were already invested in him, John strongly believed that people would “like to know more about my dad.” Our Managing Editor, Jess, who never had the honor of meeting Tex (and isn’t a fan of baseball), says it’s a read anyone can enjoy: “Tex’s character and his love for baseball and his family truly shine. It’s a beautiful and entertaining story of a great man.”

Tex saved baseball twice through a great abundance of care for his community and baseball: “he saved baseball by the fact that it was going to be bankrupt. He came in and wiped out the bankruptcy in one year. Then, about 25 years later, we needed to build a new stadium to keep baseball in Syracuse. He had the vision to go to the state of New York and the county and the city and private donors to raise 32 million dollars to build a brand new stadium that sits, today, here in Syracuse, preserving baseball in Syracuse.” This is an outstanding feat that no other person in the baseball community in Syracuse was able to take on. 

When asked about the inspiration behind the book, John said the inspiration “was him, and his life.” John said that people definitely needed to know more about him than “just the guy that’s at the ballpark all the time.” Tex struggled with Alzheimer’s late in his life, so John and his sister Wendy had to “go on what we were told back in the day” to write Tex’s stories about his youth and before the two were born. 

Pursuing a Simone family dream by finishing the book was made somewhat easier by Tex’s unknowing participation in the pages decades earlier. The family found letters that Tex had written to his brother during the Korean War to add to the various stories that Tex held onto throughout his lifetime. Many emotional feelings were palpable to the family through those letters, in which we pick up on Tex’s athleticism, deep love of baseball, and the profound care he had for his loved ones. These elements seem to echo on every page of his life story.

When asked how long it took to write Tex Simone, John said, “Probably 10 years from start to finish. Finding a person to write down our stories—Laura and Jess were just outstanding. They made it very easy.” He can’t thank Laura and Jess enough for their continued support through the editing process, to publication, to promotion of Tex Simone.  

In trying to publish a title, John says that he would tell people to “get together with our publisher [Wildebeest] because they have gone through it. I actually did that for a friend of mine who I met, who found out I was writing a book, and then he wanted to know—cause he was in the same position as me, he didn’t know how to do it—and he hooked up with Laura and Jess and they helped him along the way.” It’s integral to spread resources with other authors to help them take the leaps to get published! Finding out who you click with through the publication process is the most efficient way to ensure a smooth transition into the publication of your first title. John stresses that you have to be willing to put in the rest of the work to make that book happen.  

Surprisingly, there haven’t been any major surprises in getting published for John. He said, “It kind of went the way I thought it was, and maybe that’s because Wildebeest does such a good job. It just seemed flawless.” John didn’t anticipate the challenges with the editing process at times, where “the editing part probably took three to four months.” No matter where you are in your manuscript, there will always be something to correct. One of John’s other minor surprises with this is how the public received Tex Simone: "I'm just surprised at how many people have actually bought it and have commented on it.” This is a testament to the people who began to see Tex as the person behind his baseball career, and were inspired by the humanity uncovered there.   

John Simone used to work in the public relations field: “I worked for the Syracuse Newspapers back in the day as kind of a beat reporter—very minor position. There weren’t interns back then, I don’t know what they called us—I was free help.” In starting out as a beat reporter, John was able to write baseball game stories and actual stories. In reflecting on this, John also recalls how he and his sister Wendy sent William Humber “all the stories about my dad, and he put it all together in chronological order.”     

John realized that when they sent those stories to William Humber that some of them were about his own experiences growing up at the ballpark: “My dad started in baseball in 1961, and I was born in 1960. So for my whole life, growing up as a youth, I was a bat boy, and then I was a clubhouse boy, and then I worked for him and odd jobs around the stadium.” There was almost never a time that John did not spend at the stadium. On top of that, he was able to find work there ... and worked for his father! John says that he wrote Tex Simone in a tone that was symbolic with a tribute, which included not adding any content “that wasn’t saintly.” 

As the generations pass on in the Simone family, they “will know their grandfather was ‘so and so.’” However, John mentions how the content in his stories are a “little bit racy.” This is a major difference between Tex’s stories versus John’s stories: one was a tribute with a culmination of stories that honored John’s father, while the other is a culmination of stories that show more of the realistic “behind-the-scenes” of baseball and John’s experiences growing up. John mentions how “when I sent the first 40,000 words to Jess, she said, ‘this is great. You gotta do this. You gotta keep going.’ Cause my stories are, you know, things that happen in a dugout where, you know, guys smoking a cigarette and telling me “don’t move” so the umpire doesn’t see me.” John recognizes that his stories contain funny elements that are relatable and that people “would be interested in.” 

This work that John is writing currently focuses on “ the stuff that happened when I was a youth at the ballpark and how I became the general manager working for my dad.” He is currently at 80,000 words, and says that he has “about another 40,000 or 50,000 to go.” John is hopeful that there will be another book out by this time next year.           

John never really was “into” writing, but along the way, part of his job was writing. John reflects back on his time in public relations: “Back then, you know,  you had a typewriter to be a PR guy. You had to write press releases with a typewriter, and I think I just started when copiers came out.” John gained his experience with writing through press releases, writing media guides, and writing biographies on players.” However, writing a book “is taking it to a different level.”   

John considered for a moment what he would call his next book: “I don’t know what to call it, ‘From Bat Boy to GM,’ I don’t know, something and everything in-between. How’s that for a title?” Either way, this book is focused on John’s experiences “working and hanging out at a ballpark from the time I was five years old.”    

When asked about his experience in working with Wildebeest Publishing, John was ecstatic to respond: “Well,  I think like I said, it’s been great. Both girls are different. Jess, you know, we dealt with her a lot early, and we loved to work—my sister and I loved working with her. She has a passion for it, and made it easy for us, great.” Co-founder Jess made it easy for them to manage and navigate the editing process. He also reflects on how great the Wildebeest founder, Laura, was in keeping them all accountable through to publication and promotions: “Laura is more of the business type. So, you know, she kind of gives us orders every once in a while. But, she has to because you gotta stay on it, and she’s helped us along the way as far as the promotional.” 

John also informed me that he and Wendy did a book signing at Barnes & Noble Dewitt on Saturday, June 14th, right before Father’s Day at 1:00-3:00 P.M. EST. John and Wendy also held a book launch for Tex Simone “at the baseball stadium that my dad built—that was for invited guests only during a baseball game.” In fact, you can go to John and Wendy’s Facebook page “Tex Talk” to keep track of future book signings, promotions, and possible book readings of Tex Simone! 

John said a major goal that he and his sister have stuck to fulfilling is to do “a number of things to keep the book in front of people.” Social media has been very helpful for them in managing events, promotions, and book signings. John and Wendy created a website called texsimone.com to give background on Tex Simone, background on the author who helped weave the stories about Tex Simone together, and a contact form to inquire about events and media requests! 

John Simone, Wendy Shoen-Simone, and Wildebeest founder Laura Thorne did press with Bridge Street to talk about the relationship that both John and Wendy had with their father, a little about the publication process, how Tex Simone was a good match for Wildebeest Publishing, and the legacy that Tex Simone left to John and Wendy to speak on for the rest of their lives. 

John said everyone knew his dad as Tex Simone, “‘the baseball guy.’” It’s also why they used the word “T-E-X” in big letters, “because that’s all you had to do was put ‘TEX’ on the cover of something and people knew who you were talking about in this community and in the baseball world as well.”    

John has some inspiring words of wisdom for those who want to start writing: “I think anybody can be a writer. Everyone has a story. Either themselves, about themselves, or their family, or whatever. If you enjoy, you know, if you have the time and you enjoy just getting in front of a computer and typing away, you’d be surprised what comes out of you.” John had this experience when writing the epilogue at the end of the book “at about 2:00 A.M. in the morning.” When he sent it to co-founder Jess, he realized he had truly made his point: “When I sent it to Jess, she showed it to her mother and her mother cried, like for 20 minutes she told me—uncontrollable.” It can be very rare for writers to incite that kind of emotion from a book, but unbreakable family bonds will always persist, even beyond death. 

For John, the epilogue was “about my relationship with my dad, you know, I worked with him and then I cared for him at the end, so it was kind of a neat relationship, and between all that, he was my father.” John is the luckiest son in the world to have a father like Tex. In writing the way that John felt, he realized “something really good came out of me.” 

He had lots of incredible stories about his father that were both “funny and interesting.” While his father struggled with Alzheimer’s, John said Tex still knew “who my sister and I were, he still really cared about what we did for him.” When John is asked, “What’s the best job he ever had?” He responds with “caring for my father, hands down. It beats everything.” Throughout his life, Tex had shown John what it was like to be both part of the baseball world and how to be a man. This kind of eternal love is what comes back around when we can care for our parents and believe in them the way that they believed in you. To John, “when you take care of your parent, and they know that you’re taking care of them and appreciate it, and give you the love back—there’s nothing that can beat it.” Love is the home run we should all go to bat for—no matter what. 

To learn more about where to purchase Tex Simone: The Man Who Saved Baseball in Syracuse, read more here!

Go visit the Tex Simone website at texsimone.com!

If you want to keep up with events, book signings, promotions, and book readings from John Simone and Wendy Shoen-Simone, go to their Facebook page “Tex Talk” here!

If you want to see the press that John, Wendy, and Laura did with Bridge Street, click here!
 

To read more about Wildebeest Publishing’s publications, click here! 

Kinsey Krachinski is an English graduate student who will be starting at Indiana University South Bend this year! She has extensive publishing experience that ranges from articles to children's books, essays, and poetry. Kinsey's dedication to mental health support initiatives, non-profit organizations, and community outreach allows her to reach several diverse communities. Just like the wolf, her spirit animal, she leads with fierce passion in her journey to support marginalized voices in publishing.