Celebrating the Playoffs: Cardboard Gods Giveaway

Here at Algonquin, we like to celebrate the playoffs in true American style: by kicking up our feet, turning on the tube, and belting “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” while eating bacon-wrapped hot dogs and petting a Bald Eagle. And who better to help us celebrate than baseball connoisseur Josh Wilker, author of  Cardboard Gods? In his hilarious and heartbreaking memoir, Josh tells the story of his 1970′s childhood through his beloved collection of of baseball cards. He begins each chapter with a full-color image of one of his cards–Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, Tom Seaver, Wade Boggs, and many lesser-known players—and uses it as a launching point to chronicle his unusual childhood in which only his collection of paper heroes could give him the unfailing faith that a winning season was just around the corner.

We have three of these puppies up for grabs. Want to win one? Just submit a comment here or on our Facebook page. May the biggest baseball fans win!

Praise for Cardboard Gods:

“Proust has his madeleine. Nick Hornby has his vinyl records. And when Josh Wilker wants to summon the past, he has the scent of bubblegum. . . . If Wilker had a baseball card, its back might read: Josh is one of 2010′s most promising literary players.”—Sports Illustrated

“A baseball-loving loner deciphers his complicated childhood through his old box of trading cards. . . . Wilker’s book is as nostalgically intoxicating as the gum that sweetened his card-collecting youth. Grade: A.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Wilker connects baseball cards to more pop culture references than a season of Family Guy—everything from Louis L’Amour westerns to Jack Kerouac to Elvis Costello . . . You’ll love this book.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“I couldn’t put it down . . . In much the same way Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Wait Till Next Year is as much about growing up in the 1950s as her being a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Wilker, too, uses baseball as a backdrop in writing about the ’70s.” —The Boston Herald

Tags: Baseball, Cardboard Gods, Josh Wilker