Special Guests

Dr. James Carothers

James Carothers, Professor of English at the University of Kansas, has taught there since 1970, and has taught a course called “The Literature of Baseball” since 1974. The course includes fiction, journalism, biography, history, and statistics. Other on-going teaching interests include Faulkner and Hemingway, the Modern American Novel, Shakespeare, Comedy and Humor, and Freshman Honors composition. He was the founding co-editor of The Faulkner Journal, and is the author of William Faulkner’s Short Stories (1985) and (with Theresa M. Towner) Reading Faulkner’s Collected Stories (2004).

He grew up in St. Louis where the Cardinals were his team and Stan Musial was his hero. He has lectured widely on baseball and its literature, from Cooperstown to Berkeley nationally, and, most recently, at the University of Mumbai. His comments on baseball books were included in both editions of The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. He played various kinds of ball as long as he could, going to Royals fantasy camp, where slugger John Mayberry called him “one hard-hitting white man.”

Ferguson Jenkins

Major league Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins made his debut with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1965, at the age of 22. Traded to the Cubs the following season, the righthander was their staff mainstay for the next six seasons, winning at least 20 games in each one. His best season with the Cubs was in 1971, when he won 24 games and the Cy Young award. Traded to the Texas Rangers in 1975, Jenkins had probably his best season in his storied career, winning a league high 25 games, tossing 6 shut outs, and compiling a now-unthinkable 29 complete games. Jenkins would tally double figure win-totals in seven of the next eight seasons, before retiring after another stint with the Cubs in 1983. Across his career, Jenkins compiled a 284-226 record, and earned his Hall of Fame election in 1991. In his post-baseball career, Jenkins has gained fame as a coach, speaker, and part-time politician. He is also author of three books, the latest of which is called Fergie: My Life from the Cubs to Cooperstown. He is the first Hall of Fame member to be considered as a luncheon speaker for the Baseball in Literature and Culture Conference.