A Detroit Baseball Time Travel Story With Real History Inside

A dusty closet under a ballpark sounds harmless until it becomes a doorway to the past. We talk with author and genealogist Timothy Bernard Carr about Timing Is Everything, a fast-moving historical fiction time travel novel that starts in Detroit with the 2003 Tigers and then dares to rewrite the moments that still sting. If you love Detroit sports, baseball history, or Irish American storytelling, this one lands right in that sweet spot where research meets imagination.

https://timothybernardcarrauthor.com/

We dig into how genealogy shaped Carr’s voice, why Rocky Road to America began as “just family research,” and how real events became the backbone for a bigger story. His main character, Mark Killeran, carries the weight of Vietnam and a lifetime of regret, then finds himself face-to-face with American legends and American mistakes. Jim Thorpe’s 1912 medal scandal, Frank Navin’s Tigers, a Babe Ruth curveball, and Ty Cobb’s complicated reputation all become turning points in an alternate history that asks what “redemption” would actually cost.

Then the ripples get bigger: breaking the color barrier earlier, pushing integration beyond baseball, and imagining a very different path through JFK-era politics and the Vietnam War. We also get practical about modern self-publishing through Amazon KDP, where to find the book, and why authors have to think about piracy in the digital age. Subscribe, share this with a baseball fan or history buff, and leave a review with the one moment you’d change if you had Killeran’s chance.

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Transcript

Opening Theme And Title

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Rocky Road to America.

Jamie Flanagan 0:01

Rocky Road to America.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

How did everyone in my family get there?

Jamie Flanagan 0:05

And that went out.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Oh yeah, but that's been out ten ten years.

Jamie Flanagan 0:10

Okay, well. Yeah, it took a little while.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Stop the bone at Boston. Gonna make me a new life. First to find some more. Gonna find me a pretty wife. Stay the money on the door. Stay in all hires need a flight. Stop putting the promo tool up in the light.

Welcome To My Irish Radio

Introducing Author Timothy Bernard Carr

Childhood Roots In Metro Detroit

Jamie Flanagan 0:40

My Irish radio, make my Irish radio your Irish radio. Well, as a matter of fact, you did just that because you're here. Uh and and you see this and it's happening. Thanks for being here. My Irish Radio 24-7, the best Celtic music. We got shows from Seattle, from Louisiana, here in the Metro Detroit area, uh, and and everywhere in between. So uh thanks for joining us, and uh we like to talk to musicians and uh artists and authors, and today we're doing exactly that. We are talking to an author. There's a new book out literally. Um we're here uh April Fool's Day. Uh and this just came out uh yesterday, and it's called, well, very appropriately, Timing is Everything. Uh so there you go. We're gonna talk uh uh about that. Uh our author, Timothy Bernard. Timothy! Hi Jamie. Welcome, welcome, welcome to uh welcome to the show, man. Thank you very much. I'm glad to be here. All right, so fun. Uh we're gonna talk about the book. Uh, and this is your second public published book. Uh, and we'll we'll talk about uh that and then the things to come before we do that. Tim, tell me about your childhood. My childhood. Which is actually a little bit germane to uh the motivations for writing these books. I guess it's gonna be the experience in uh yeah, tell me about your childhood.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Okay, so I grew up in a town called Warren, Michigan by Eight Mile Road. All right, and uh Irish American family through and through, and an Irish grandma that we visited that was born in Ireland, and she's got a story on her own. Uh actually helped fight in the Civil War of Ireland in 1921. But yeah, so we we grew up in a very normal American family playing sports, lived in a time as you did, where all the neighborhoods had kids and played, and we made up games and played baseball all the time. And yeah, so it was a thing that was a great childhood, actually. I didn't know I was poor, I didn't know we had seven kids in a 900 square foot house or seven people, and uh my three brothers and I were in one bedroom, yeah, and we had a I it's just a great childhood, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

High School Memories And Friendship

Jamie Flanagan 2:50

I loved it. Colleen was one of eight, and we go we that house in Detroit, and we're like, there were ten people in. Yeah, how do you do it? Yeah, they were chunked in like four and four, but still, man, it was a lot of people, but uh so full disclosure, we went to high school together.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Yes, we did, yes, long ago. So, yeah, so ran track together, yeah. So we did not play baseball together, but we didn't no, I wasn't a baseball guy. So neither I ended up not being a baseball guy either.

Jamie Flanagan 3:16

I wasn't good enough. Track across country. That was it for me. That was uh that was you were good at it. That was all I could manage. Yeah, you were good. You you were actually. I tell I would tell people stories uh about you and uh the one time you ran the high hurdles because I'm like 6'1, you're you're not quite that tall. No, I'm not quite even five six, but you're very, very fast. Uh and you were very, very fast. Those high hurdles scared me. And and but you did it because you're not that tall of a guy, so you purposely knocked each and every one. It was easier. If if I'm not gonna trip on it, I'm just gonna well.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

If I couldn't make the first one, I'm not gonna make any of the rest. So I just said you know, that was it.

How Genealogy Became The Mission

Jamie Flanagan 3:56

But anyway, all right. So you are very into Irish genealogy, yes, uh genealogy in general, but uh very focused because of your heritage and your wife's heritage again. Right. Disclosure, my friend since fifth grade, right? Fourth grade, I used to. Also went to high school with us, yeah. And went in the same high school. Um, so you guys are both very much into the Irish culture and heritage. Do you do other do you go down other roads or is is in the genealogy uh Irish your your your gig?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

What I did in the beginning of genealogy after I did my family, I was doing as a charity type thing. I was giving back, I'd like to go to our church here in Birmingham and and do like ladies, people that were 70, 80 years old had no idea about their heritage, and I would do those. And so I'd get into German, all different types of European genealogy.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

And then I started I even did some work for a couple Hollywood guys from It's Sunny in Philadelphia. Oh Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney, yeah, yeah. Bringing it to full circle, Rob McElheny's dad and I are friends now because of what the work we did, and he actually was one of the editors on this book. Oh, yeah. So I did I've never got into like Latin America or Africa or anything like that, but I've done pretty much anything you can do in Europe. Okay, fair play.

Rocky Road To America Begins

Jamie Flanagan 5:13

Because yeah, my my family branches, you know, that my my dad's side, 100% Irish, mom's side, 100% Polish. Yeah, done a lot of Polish, and we yeah, we uh have some cool stuff on my Polish side. Oh yeah. And then like my my grandma's second husband after my grandmy, you know, biological grandfather passed away. She got remarried a handful of years later, and that guy had stories to tell boy, he was like an ambulance driver, and oh wow, uh yeah, it was like in in communist Poland, you know. There's some stories there, yeah, yeah. There's great stuff. So, and that's really what motivated you to doing the genealogy and just kind of searching searching your soul, right? Finding finding yourself, which is what led you to your first book, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

So the first book was what the first book ended up being called Rocky Road to America, and I'm but it really wasn't supposed to be a book. No, it wasn't supposed to be a book. I had done all the genealogy research, I started in 1999, and I was getting a little like antsy about the output, it's just names and dates, and you know, what do you do with that? So, with the advent of the internet and Google and all that, so you start searching on what was going on at the times that these people lived, yeah, and invariably I found hits, I found interesting things that people were doing. And I think I think I said, There's a book here, and I've never been a writer, I'm I you know I was a finance guy and all that, but all I had to do was write one chapter about that event and then go to the next, sure, and so that's what I did chronologically, and I just found some interesting stories, and I thought tied in with the time around your family, exactly.

Jamie Flanagan 6:50

But they were real too. Okay, so and if your ancestors were involved in them and yeah, and but it had to fill out a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

So I'm a big fan of historical fictional novels. Sure. One of my favorite art authors is Edward Rutherford, who wrote two books on Ireland, and Michael Crichton, which is they do this thing where they have a family tree in the beginning of the book and then they write the history of something through these fictional family trees. So I wrote my book that way, but the it wasn't fictional, these are people real, those events were real, peeps. Yeah, but I had to fill out the story a little bit, so that's where the historical fictional comes in. Okay, yeah, and this book here is going to be historical fiction too. But I'm really it's important to me to be many facts in the book. So many, many, many things are factual. The the element that changed it all was the time travel and what if you could do something different.

Jamie Flanagan 7:42

Yeah, that's for the second book. That's for the second book. So, but yeah, the first book. Wait, and what was the title of the first one? Rocky Rocky Road to America.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Rocky Road to America. So, how did everyone in my family get there?

Jamie Flanagan 7:51

Get here and and that went out. You that's been out for a while.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Well, yeah, but that's been out ten years now. All right.

Jamie Flanagan 7:58

All right, well, sophomore, so time for that uh sophomore pitch. Yeah, it took a little while. So you've been doing a you've done a lot of genealogy from from here to there, and you've traced like yours and Jennifer's roots further and further back because you've gotten better at it and better at it. Yeah, and there's more information. How far, yeah, how far back have you taken your genealogy and or Jen's?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

My big one, my goes back to the 1500s with a famous Irish chieftain called Red Hugh O'Donnell. Okay, so he he his goes his back, that goes that far back. Jen also goes back to Irish royalty and the O'Connor family. So these things go back pretty far. Now, if you're not tied to a famous family, most of the Irish records were burned in fires in the 1800s, so it's really hard to go that far back. But in on my wife's family, too, on her dad's side, she goes back to the 1600s just in America alone. Uh so a very rich family history when you can find someone like that.

Jamie Flanagan 8:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, that's cool. So people that you've worked with doing their doing their trees for them, what's the furthest back you've gone for somebody? I've made it back to like uh how'd we find that?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah, like uh the kings from the Tudors uh dynasty. So you're talking 11th, 12th century. All right. Well, that's pretty far neat. Yeah, I you can't get can't really break through, I think, to the 900 ADs, 800 ADs, but I I I typically can get back to 1500, 1400s on uh most families. Wow, right.

What Sparked Timing Is Everything

Jamie Flanagan 9:31

That's that's amazing. Yeah, all right. So the first Rocky Road to America, uh a lot of genealogy between here and there, yeah. And then what spawned the idea for timing is is is everything. So that's uh the book, which kind of plays into a couple of podcasts here, right? It's my Irish radio, and we play the Irish music and talk about Irish stuff, and then Detroit City of Champions, all based around 1935, and the the 33 championships that were run, one in Detroit at that time with people like Ty Cobb, Mickey Metal. Yeah, uh, these players here were still very integral in in the sports around that time. So, yeah, what led you to this book?

Writing Fast And Publishing Modern

SPEAKER_01 10:15

So, interesting enough, I came up with the concept all the way back to 2019. And I remember drawing up a outline and a quick synopsis of what I wanted to try to do with this book. And again, I wanted to be historical fiction, I wanted it to be baseball driven, I wanted to have an Irish flavor, but the outline that was back in 2019 was nothing like the uh end product, and then what happened was after 2019, as we all know, was COVID, yeah, which you would think would be a good time to write, but it was a you know, we we took our family in and we had it was not a good time to do anything. And then I became a part-time caregiver for my sister-in-law who had Alzheimer's, so so it just sat on the shelf for a long time and we kind of freed up last September. The kids get a little older, kids got older, getting done with college, getting through college, and uh and I sat and I said, I should look at that outline again. And I actually wrote the book in three months. Oh wow from September to December, and I've been doing the editing and trying to understand the modern way of publishing a book ever since, you know.

Jamie Flanagan 11:22

Yeah, well, publishing today is very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Yeah, it's a whole different ballgame. It's you you self are you is this self-published? No, I went through KDP at Amazon, okay, but I also had some help along the way. So I like I had mentioned earlier, I had Rob McLenny's dad, edit this book. I actually swapped him, uh I did his wife's genealogy, and then he did this for me. Fair play. And then I had a company that helped with the transition to Amazon and also some of the marketing that goes on that I was clueless about.

Jamie Flanagan 11:52

Yeah, you're like, oh, really? You gotta do that? Yeah, exactly. Barcode? What?

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah, and that's a company called Elite Authors, and they were they were they were fantastic, actually.

Meet Mark Killeran In 2003

Jamie Flanagan 12:01

Yeah. All right. So this is based, is it's uh Detroit in Detroit. Okay. Tell me tell me about the uh the the lead character here because I you know it it's only been out a day, and I just only copied in my hand five minutes ago. So that's right. Tell me about the lead lead character.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

So I have an Irish American gentleman named Mark Killeran. Oh, I like that name. Yeah, who came to the Tigers in the mid-70s after the Vietnam War. Okay.

Jamie Flanagan 12:29

And how much how much you know, realistic fiction, how much realistic is in here?

SPEAKER_01 12:35

In the main character, at all. It uh there's a lot of realism in this. Okay, a lot of the events I'm talking about were absolutely true. Okay, but because I was trying to work an angle of redemption, I'm gonna say that word again later. Right, the actual outputs were different than reality. Fair play. So Killerin. Yeah, Killerin's uh he ends up being uh a tiger executive, working up the ladder from a sales ticket guy, all right. And he makes it to assistant general manager by 2003. His problem was is he as he went to Vietnam War, he had a brother with him, he the brother dies, and it wrecks him for the rest of his life, so he never achieves the success he should have. He ends up being a regular at the Gaelic League, which me and you both know about. There's a session on tonight. We went in over there, and so he he in the beginning of the book, it's more about the the failure of his life, his marriage, his kids, everything. But also it it correlates with the failure. And I picked 2003 for a reason. It was the worst season the Terry Tigers ever had.

Jamie Flanagan 13:36

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

That was their like yeah, they're they almost broke the record of many losses in a season. Yeah, but the I didn't realize until I look back at it that the last 10 games or so, it was very crucial for them to win almost every single game, so they wouldn't break the record. So I do a play by a game-by-game analysis in the game. And so that's that's factual. That's factual too. Everything in there is factual. And at the end of that chapter, it's basically the Tigers were terrible. My main character, Mark Killer and is in bad shape, but they didn't break the record for futility. Okay. So there's there's a light there, there's a glimmer, a glimmer of hope.

Jamie Flanagan 14:12

And if people know the next year, yeah, and then they made Leland. They made it to the did they make it to the World Series?

SPEAKER_01 14:19

No, well, that a couple years after that, but they hired Leland and and God Verlander and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, so it it it just sets up the book because when I talk about the rest of the characters in the book, they all had flaws or are or misconceptions that I was trying to basically write some wrongs.

Jamie Flanagan 14:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

And so the first right I that's why I set up the book that way in the beginning was to show the tigers also as bad as they were, could come back that well, you know.

Jamie Flanagan 14:46

Timing is everything. That's right. All right, so how do we it it it it to but he time travels? So he's he's in the 2020s, and he travels back to Yeah, he's in 2003.

Jim Thorpe And The First Fix

SPEAKER_01 14:58

2003, all right. So the early 2000s. So he first thing he travels back to, and again, that's why I thought the way I have the the vehicle of the um 2003, I mean, yeah, the vehicle is uh it's kind of uh weird, but it's an old dusty closet in the bottom of Tiger Stadium. Okay, and there's a light, and he goes in there and checks what that light was, and then he just automatically ends up time traveling. And then where's the where's the travel take him to what era does it the first one goes back to uh and again it's a story of redemption, so it wasn't baseball per se, even though this guy did play baseball, but I went back to Jim Thorpe in 1912. Okay, so he just wins the all the Olympics records in 1912 in Stockholm, and we know the story, he gets them all stripped because he played a little bit of professional baseball in the summer, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what I tried to do was say, okay, this guy, so he's clueless. How the hell did I get to Oklahoma in 1912 and why am I here? Did they ever restore his medals to him they eventually did, but it was only a few years. It was possible. It was just a few years ago. Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 16:04

All right, anyway, so it's things that things that piss me off about America.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Yeah, all right, exactly. Keep going, keep going. But the real story evolves around another famous name, Amos Alonso Stag, who was the football coach for Jim Thorpe, and also had many other players play in professional sports that he didn't want anyone to find out about. Right, right. So they hoodwinked Jim Thorpe, was known to not be that smart or sharp or savvy, and they hood hoodwinked him into giving up all his medals. There was a a rule book that they hid, the Sweden Stockholm Olympic rule book that said if anyone's got a problem with anything, they gotta make a complaint within 30 days. Oh so it was like a year later, yeah, that they did this to him.

Jamie Flanagan 16:50

Right.

Detroit 1933 And Babe Ruth

SPEAKER_01 16:51

So I took that fact and I and that was reality. That was reality. Okay, fair play. And I took the fact and I had this guy figure out, well, I'm stuck in 1912, how am I gonna get out of here? I and he runs into Jim Thorpe and whatever, and so he figures out a way. If I do something good, maybe I'll go get to go home. So he goes makes his case in New York City to the athletic, it was under AAU then. And he makes a case, which again, that guy was real. That was you know, that was where the decision was made. But he comes in and makes a case and saves it for him. Fair play. And so he ends up uh in another time travel. This is the only time he didn't travel into Detroit, but he ends up in a time travel in New York, and he ends up then in 1933, Detroit.

Jamie Flanagan 17:37

Okay. Now which is the uh advent of the uh city of champions season.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

It is yeah, now that's just a coincidence, I think, because what we're gonna talk about is the Tigers becoming very good. Yeah, and they were very good anyway. Yeah, but you'll see what I mean by that. 33 just worked from the timing point of view, sure, but it also worked for the next event, which was involving Babe Ruth. Okay. So the main character wakes up and he said, Well, this looks like Tiger Stadium, or you know, you know, but it wasn't because it was at that time, it was Naven Field. Right. Oh, yeah, yeah. Big Stadium Naven Field. It didn't look like Tiger Stadium at all. Yeah, yeah. So he's very close to kind of familiar. Yeah, kind of familiar. But he he he gets his bearings and then he figures out something and he listens, he wants to go talk to Frank Naven, the owner, and he listens to what's going on, and they're and they're hearing this true story again about Frank Naven wanting to poach Babe Ruth from the Yankees. Yeah, because Babe Ruth was not going to be allowed to be the manager of the Yankees, which Babe Ruth was incensed about right in real life because every good player back then became a manager. And basically the owner's like, You're not a good role model, you can't be and so come on, six and cigars for everybody. So Navin calls him, all everything I'm about to say until I don't is gonna be real. Navin calls Babe Ruth, he's in San Francisco waiting for a boat to Hawaii for an exhibition thing. Exhibition games, and babe Ruth being gregarious and like Naven, what do you mean you want to hire me? Uh you know, I'm I'm I I why don't we talk when I get back from Hawaii? Which Navin was a no notorious hothead, takes the phone, throws it, it never calls him again. So I have my Johnny on the spot, yeah, Mark Killer. Killeran steps in, steps in, and he comes up with a plan. So on the way back from Hawaii, he's back in San Francisco. Mark Killer devises a plan to go there, and this is where it gets a little creative. At the same time in 1933, there was a young minor leaguer in San Francisco playing for the Pacific Coast League named Joe DiMaggio. Ah Joe DiMaggio, still very stylish, very you know, good looking, and you know, yeah, yeah. So he buys him a suit, tells him to meet him at the bar, brings him to meet Babe Ruth, doesn't tell him why, and they meet and whatever, and then he leaves, and then Mark Killeran tells Babe, listen, I know what's gonna happen here. The Yankees are gonna sign him next year. Oh, yeah, because you know and there he's gonna be the face of the franchise because he's not he's everything opposite you. He's smooth, suave, good looking, and and that incenses did Killeran put him in the suit too, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 20:20

Oh, fair play. He might actually shape some of that image, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Up, up, he might have. And so Babe Ruth gets mad, and then they call Naven and he he goes on with the Tigers. Fair play. So that's how he gets the tigers. There you are.

Jamie Flanagan 20:32

So that's fun. That's yeah, so uh the the truth and the fiction weaving together, and and and he's seeking his own redemption, yeah. Right. And that's that's uh we won't give away too much, right?

Ty Cobb And Early Integration

SPEAKER_01 20:44

No, I mean it is his his redemption is a little different though. He he was at the end of his playing career anyway, yeah. So he plays the next year. They do running. So I'm talking about Killer Rance and his oh yeah, his redemption, right? His redemption. He's he's trying to do the right thing so he can get back to 2003, yeah. But he's also very excited about being around these giants, you know. I mean, yeah, so he he's loving it. Babe Ruth becomes an incredible manager, actually, for the Tigers and puts them on a dynasty run. Yeah, so the Detroit City of Champions is 34-35. Yep. But this one goes even longer. But there's a reason why it goes longer. Part of it is because Babe Ruth becomes an incredible manager, and now he's known for being one of the greatest baseball players and baseball managers. Okay, so there's a dynasty being created.

Jamie Flanagan 21:29

That's fun.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

So the next thing that happens is Ty Cobb is known primarily because of one guy. There's a lot of there's a lot of ups and downs on Ty. Yeah, yeah. And there's a one guy was the guy who really made him out to be a just an amp absolute racist, horrible human being. Yeah. And the truth of the matter is he was no more racist than anyone from that era. But he was also very favorable to black baseball players at the time. In fact, he threw out the first pitch at Hamframic Stadium and when they uh moved there or the Negro League team, the Detroit Stars. And he was actually talking about the Negro League. Yeah, then there's a couple stories in there that even go back to 1905 that were real that Ty Cobb was in favor of Blacks playing the Major League. And I think that goes back to his competitive sphere. He wants to play against the best. So I have Mark Hillaran convinced Babe to hire Ty Cobb as the president of the Tigers. So there's a two-headed giant combo here of Ty Cobb and Baby Roof. And the plan is for them to go to the American Leagues and convince them to break down the color barrier in 1947. And so there's a whole rigmarole of how they did that, and it's interesting, but that's really interesting for this conversation. They actually accomplished it. In 1934. Because Killer knows the history. He knows who all the great altars were. He stacked the deck. He stacked the deck. He gets four of the best.

Jamie Flanagan 23:22

That's not redemption. That's genius. That's genius. That's genius.

JFK Vietnam And Alternate America

SPEAKER_01 23:26

But it's redemption, I think. You'll see why for the Black Lairs, but Mark Hillaran stacks the deck and then tear off on a dynasty and win almost every year. For the for the 1930s and into the forties. And then I guess what happens then is that kind of goes even a step further. He was in World War One. And he actually has the brass, so to speak, to go to the brass military before World War II or during World War II. And says, look, we've integrated baseball. Why can't we integrate the military? Because they didn't fight side by side. So he convinces them to try it as a thing. And he hires Oscar Carlson, who is well known at the end of his baseball career, but well respected. And it works. And by the end of World War II, basically the military is integrated. And this is where the redemption comes in. So you can imagine after World War II, the whole country was euphoric and it went off into a great economic pool, but mostly for white people. So in this sense, I'm saying, and I know a lot of this sounds you told me, but why not? I'm saying if they were accepted in baseball in the 30s and then accepted in the in the in the military in the forties, they come out being respected in the fifties as well. So much so that the 1960s is a racial, riot, horrible decade. It was a good decade. Everyone was prosperous. Which then we'll tie into something related to John Kennedy. But before I get there, can I go a little bit further? Sure. I don't care. It's fun. There's one more redemption. Yeah. There's one more redemption. Okay, I'll go not as detailed. There's one more redemption related to my favorite ball player while doing Mickey Manner. Okay. So he Mickey Manner takes care of that. Going back to Mark Killeran, he has to figure out the biggest he's done all these things. But what he didn't do was save his brother who died in the Vietnam War. So during these 20 years, while he's in the past, he's got to figure out how can he fix that. And so I come up with a rather I probably won't go into detail in this, but just a rather interesting way to change the course of how the United States operates after World War II. Instead of the military military the military industrial complex where everything was about find a war, find a war, find a war. It was more about using some money to help comp countries become Democratic, true democratic countries. Because it's been tested from years and years that democratic countries very rarely go to war against each other. So he he takes that theory and goes to meet John Kennedy as a senator in the 50s and convinces him that this is the way that he should go. This is the way. And so then there's an event that happens. Okay. And Mark Killeran, I've already given up a lot of the book, but you know, he gets on a plane that crashes. Oh everyone assumes he's gone. The bet next part of the book is that did the stuff that Mark Killeran do in those 20 years did it work? Uh-huh. And so I take everybody through the 60s and 70s into the eighties a little bit. And it shows if you if you didn't put so much money or uh money into the military industrial complex and wars, and you helped the world, there was no reason to kill John Kennedy. Because that's what a lot of people blame that on.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

Alright.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

So Kennedy actually doesn't get assassinated. He stops the Vietnam War.

Jamie Flanagan 27:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Which hopefully saves Mark's brother in time. Ah. And then RFK doesn't get shot. Right. M OK doesn't get shot. Right. So the rows three become important in our country. Marty's.

Jamie Flanagan 27:38

Did you run into your parents?

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Don't I don't want any jam. What do they call that? The uh uh it's a horrible thing that can happen to the universe or whatever. So anyway, I go through that and then I kind of make a surprise. I I bring Mark Killeran back. So he didn't just die, he he didn't go on that crash plane. And he comes back and he's in 2003 and don't call it a comeback. Yeah, everything's different. Everything's different. And um I tie out of his brothers there. Yeah, and he'll find out of his brothers there, and then we'll find out what he wants to do next. Okay. Because now he's spent two whole careers as a baseball guy. What would he do next? And that's all right.

Jamie Flanagan 28:19

So that is timing is everything. I hope we didn't give away too much. Yeah. Um and uh but if you're into baseball or if you're into that's almost sci-fi. It's uh historical fiction, realistic fiction. Sure. Uh this hits a lot of different buttons for different folks, right? So it it it's it's not super long. Nope. Um 200 pages or so. It's uh you're not a very bright guy, so there's not really big words in here.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

No, I try to keep them under six six letters.

Where To Buy And Watch Piracy

Jamie Flanagan 28:49

No, it's all good. You went to high school with me, so you know. No, it's Catholic school boys. I like I talk the way I speak, and like my students are like, what? I'm like, shh, look it up. I'm not explaining it to you. You know, it's like you you and they don't even have to get the computer, they can just connect on their on their watches now. They're their little Dick Tracy watches. And I said I tell them, Oh, you're a little Dick Tracy watch. No idea what I'm talking about. We'll go we'll Google that and figure it out. Yeah, well they will, and they'll know. Yeah, so they'll still know way more than us because of that. So all right, so it it's it's available now uh Amazon. Um it's uh you can get it the ebook, I'm sure the ebook and the ebook print a book and then the hardcover is on Ingram Sparks.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Oh, you can actually get a hardcover if you want, but it's on a different company. Amazon doesn't do it.

Jamie Flanagan 29:39

Fair play. Yeah. Um who do I have in here? Uh Jimmy Doom. And he put out a book, and he was talking about bootlegs. Oh, right? Bootleg when we were uh younger men, we would bootleg cassettes. That's right. Uh albums onto cassettes. That's right. It's it's in the world of AI um and publishing. You gotta keep keep your feelers and your out there. People are they'll they'll buy it, they'll scan it in, and they'll sell it.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

I know.

Jamie Flanagan 30:09

It's nutty. It is great. It's nutty.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

I think of that's why I got that other company, to be honest. To monitor at least tell me what the what the pitfalls are to look out for.

Building Baseball In Ireland

Jamie Flanagan 30:17

Yeah, because Jimmy Doom, he was like talking, he had just put out a book uh of uh of short stories and and poetry, and he was in here talking about it. Uh Jimmy Doom of Detroit, uh he was in the almighty lumberjacks of death. All right. That was 80s. Punk shaved heads. Yeah, that was an interesting group of lads for sure. But uh oh yeah, we did Jimmy Doom was in uh Kill the Irishman. Oh, was he? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was he had a parked in uh Kill the Irishman. That's great. Yeah. Oh, that was filmed in Detroit, wasn't it? Uh parts of it were yeah, yeah. So he picked up a couple parts in that. Uh in just more than just a uh you know scene filler. He sure had I think he had a couple speaking lines, but yeah, yeah. Actually, pretty cool. Anyway, um, but yeah, so watch that. That's crazy that uh you gotta watch out for that. It is crazy. So this is centered in in baseball. Um your world is is is immersed in the Irish culture, yes, and and heritage and and and genealogy and uh and all that. And something that pulls both of those things together that I'm I'm gonna guess probably influenced the writing and in the in the work that went into this or made the work that went into this a little easier, yeah, is your work with the uh Irish American Baseball League of Superheroes or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Irish American Baseball Society. Okay, you're right. There is there is some ties to that. Yeah. And uh so well, because you're a baseball fan. I'm a baseball fan. And you're you're an Irish man, and it's a nonprofit group that basically supports uh baseball in Ireland with coaches and gear and things like that, but also does a lot of things on the state side.

Jamie Flanagan 31:56

Well, because they're trying, um, because baseball is it's an American sport. It's America's sport. Um and everybody talks about football, uh, you know, soccer being the game, uh, the world game. Because really, I mean, if you think about soccer, why is soccer the world game? You don't need anything. No. You know, if you take a sweatshirt and tie it up into a ball, you got a ball and you're kicking it around. That's right. That's soccer. That's right. You know, you don't need pads, you don't need helmets, you don't need this goofy hop bomb.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

No money involves a couple rocks as goal, and you know that's it.

Jamie Flanagan 32:28

Yeah, right? So it is soccer. Is it why people say, why is it so prolific? Is well because it can be done anywhere. You know, yeah, you know, yeah. It's just so, I mean, as easy as you know, tying up a shirt into a ball. Right. And yeah, it's primitive, but you know, there's there's parts of the world that are that meaty that uh that's uh that's how they find entertainment. We played with rocks and sticks when we were kids. We made up lots of games at that. I don't know how kids survive today. I'm like, I played with rocks and sticks. I don't know. We were out on an eagle's nest on the corner of the block in a big empty field. That was the most fun we had. I got the cuts from the broken glass still. I got the scar. Anyway, but uh I really digress there as to where we're where we're going. But um it's a different world. It's uh but we know so baseball, you because you said that you fund uh the Irish American baseball what's it called? Irish American Baseball Society. Baseball society, yeah. Uh funds um the baseball experience in Ireland, right? Um getting equipment to kids because it's not a very popular sport on the island, or is it?

SPEAKER_01 33:34

So it is considered uh this is the no hurling. No, it's not it's none of the big GAA sports, right? But the GAA runs all the major sports in Ireland. They baseball, the closest thing they have to baseball is a is a kid's game called Rounders. Not the same, but very similar. And so they consider it a kids' game. So nobody really wants to play it. Sure. But now with the world, you know, world baseball classic and more you know the internet, people see what's going on. Yep. And part of what our organization was trying to do, our founder, John Fitzgerald, was uh, and I got involved in the genealogy side of this, yeah, was uh show how important Irish people were to the start of baseball in the 1800s. Over 45% of the players in the 1800s were Irish. Oh wow, all right. So it I want the people because they couldn't get a job doing anything else. Well, because they came over from off the boat with nothing to do. So and uh so there's lots of circumstances that that makes that true. Yeah. But regardless, not that some of the best players ever, you know, Dan Brothers, we will keeler, you know, all I mean, there's so many. But the um the people in Ireland don't know that, and the people in Ireland don't know today that a huge percentage of the ball players have some Irish heritage.

Jamie Flanagan 34:50

Yeah, okay. Um so Yeah, there's more Irish out of Ireland than there is in Ireland. Right, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

And so our our founder's vision was we have to get baseball popular in the Ireland, and he's he actually did more than just talk, he was involved in the early 2000s, and he actually had some success uh in international play with Team Ireland, and then it stopped. So now what we have is a stagnant period of time in Ireland where they can't even get out of uh the pool um to be able to be eligible to be in the world baseball class. Oh wow. So many other countries have have bolted ahead of Ireland, and Ireland remains steadfast in their vision of trying to do it only with Irish citizens or very few dual citizens. Now, I understand that's a noble cause, right? But everyone else is not doing that. Great Britain has nine or ten dual citizens from America, uh, Czech Republic, Italy.

Jamie Flanagan 35:52

Well, you know, I'm sure there's like there's some people like us that are like, you know, you know, my grandfather was Irish, and I would love to play for the Irish team, you know.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

And it's like now you do have to be at least a second generation, so you gotta have a grandparent that was like and uh but Ireland refuses to go along with that so they're doing like quota systems against us. So we you know we're in battle with them a lot, Team Ireland. And I think uh we're we're trying to get that point across too politically.

Jamie Flanagan 36:20

But the the sporting uh the sporting world in Ireland is so rich and it's so self-contained. I don't know, they don't really, you know. It'd be nice if if they were involved in the world thing, because I'm sure they would do well and and expand the the experience. But I mean there's so many sports that are just so very unrich and so uh definitively but the timing is getting in our favor because um football playing games in Europe all the time. Yeah, the NFL doing all those baseball European games, which are baseball's starting to come over there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

And there's a lot of talk right now of a baseball series coming up in Ireland, yeah. And if you tackle that with the you know the popularity, growing popularity of the world baseball classic, um, I think we may be able to turn the tide. It's getting more popular or two ago, right? You know, so many countries involved. And but here's the big kicker if you can get into the right pool and get eligible for the world baseball classic, major league baseball will give you three hundred thousand dollars to develop your youth leagues. Wow, okay. So that's why people are going the short-term route of having dual citizens. Yeah, yeah. And then they're gonna grow organically. Yeah. So it makes sense.

Next Books Websites And Goodbye

Jamie Flanagan 37:32

All right. So uh Rocky Road to America from about 10 years ago. Yeah, uh, timing is everything from about 10 hours ago. Yeah, that's right, that's right. And then so what's next, right? We talked a little bit before we cracked the mics. Yeah. Uh there's an idea for another book that's a prequel sequel. Prequel sequel something or other.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

I I feel like I can start co-mingling something. Yeah, I feel the need to write more about my Ireland experience. Okay. And so I have an idea where the book would start a couple generations before this, and having that what we said, those are the one leads to Killer. Killer and comes off the boat. What is he gonna do in America? Fair play. He discovers baseball in the early 1860s, which at that time was more of a club sport. Yeah. And it was also very popularized during the Civil War, so much to the point that the Union and the South would actually stop fighting for a while and they play baseball together. Yeah. So baseball became a popular sport right after the Civil War and led up to 1869 with the Cincinnati Reds being the first professional team. So I have this gentleman going through that world. Okay. And then I have him clashing somewhere like a killer in uh killer and ants father, yeah. Something like that. And then I have just a thought that he could actually come up and meet the Mark Killer in here and whatever it entails, but then maybe use that time travel thing to actually go into the future. Because right now we live in a culture where sports is king. There's so much money to be made, there's so much popularity. But will it always be that way?

Jamie Flanagan 39:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

So will sports survive, say a hundred years out? Oh. Okay. And and so I'm I'm thinking of exploring that angle using the time travel view. All right. Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 39:17

All right. So that's what's on the horizon. But people now can just look for uh Tim Carr, Timothy Carr. And uh timing is everything. Uh your Amazonian uh bookseller. Is that that's the the one stop shop for it is you have a website that I yeah, I do have an author website.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Um it's called my full name, Timothy Bernard Car Author.com.

Jamie Flanagan 39:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

And on there you'll see the books that I've done and also some of the I have genealogy, believe it or not, I have genealogy related poems that I do for families too. Oh, okay. And uh that's something I never thought I I couldn't even read a poem in high school. Share the truth, you know. Yeah, yeah. But I I've come up with that as another genealogical genealogy product I could sell. Okay. And uh it's turned out pretty good so far.

Jamie Flanagan 40:06

All right. So it's uh the Timothy Bernard author.com. And that they can get a hold of genealogy if someone really wants to do some gene genealogy or pick your brain on that.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

Yeah, my wife and I have my wife and I co-president a company called Your Roots.com with a Z that is a full service genealogy company that we both run.

Jamie Flanagan 40:26

Okay, yeah. All right. I told you you gotta do a podcast. My Irish Story. Yeah, yeah. And then but you help people learn their Irish stories. Yeah, and I think it's a good one. As you do the genealogy, you sit down with somebody and you tell them things they didn't know. And then a little bit of the history that happened along with uh times their families were around here, they're doing this or that. I agree with you. I don't know, just saying. I hear you. I know a perfect studio you could do. Yeah, I don't know where it is, though. It's really too far from home. Got a good part. No, it is a good idea, though. All right, just blessing your chops, brother. Uh, anything else we need to know? Timing is everything. Uh whatever that's it. I appreciate the time. All right, that was cool. Um, thanks, man. Yeah. My Irish radio. It's uh it's your Irish radio. Find it uh everywhere radios are sold. I don't know, someplace that's right. Uh yeah, but do all those podcast things uh and all those internet things and all the internet places. Uh like and subscribe and comment and sharing and all that. Telefriend, the best thing you do. Uh telefriend, right? So uh we do a little bit of talk uh on the videos, uh, on interviews uh on YouTube and and they end up on Facebook. Uh but the the station is the music. Um so so find it here, find it there, and telefriend. So thanks a lot, Tim. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

Thank you too.

SPEAKER_03 41:50

First gonna find some work, gonna find me a pretty wife. Find all the doors they don't hire me to fly.