After there was the Baseball Abstract, and before there was the Big Bad Baseball Annual, there was Brock J. Hanke, who took over Bill James's book from 1989 to 1994 and gave it a format that was the template for all of the baseball annuals that followed. Brock and I have known each other for four decades, and that's always been all to the good, through much thin and too little thick--or possibly the reverse. He was willing to put some of my most shameless stuff into print, and has been willing to take the heat for it with unfailing good cheer.He also anchored the player comments secitons of all the editions of BBBA, bringing a rigor combined with low-key humor that kept the heavily orchestrated chaos that surrounded him from taking over.
It's his birthday today, and we wish him nothing but the very best.
