By Diane Stanley
February 14 2003

All of the interviews I have done before have all been posted in a single article. Today's article with our own Stuart Hughes is a more in depth interview so I have decided to post it in 2 parts. Enjoy!

Okay, I'm 35 years old, live in Belper, Derbyshire, England, and am a multimedia training adviser which, basically, means I'm involved in computer based training programs, intranet design and on-line delivery of training materials, etc. I'm married to Margaret and we have a dog (Rory) and a cat (Bobby).

My interests are many and varied: I like to read - I'm currently reading about the 1919 World Series scandal, the W P Kinsella novel "Shoeless Joe" which inspired the "Field of Dreams" film, have Bill James' latest historical baseball abstract on order, and am also working my way through the Harry Potter series (I'm currently on book two). Yes, I'm a fast reader.

I'm also a fiction writer myself, having had my first short story published in 1988 and since I've had well over 50 stories published, including a collection of my best ones, titled "Ocean Eyes" in 1997.

I also edited a fiction magazine for 9 years, which twice won the British Fantasy Award. I am currently working on my first novel. I also enjoy watching films at the cinema and at home, listening to music, socializing with my friends, and playing sport - badminton, squash, football, skiing, although a torn right Achilles tendon means I'll be renewing my interest in Chess this year.

Sport-wise, I love watching most sports, but especially my two great loves football and baseball. I've been a Derby County supporter all my life, a season-ticket holder since 1975, and a contributor to the rivals Derby County site www.ramzone.co.uk since its inception.

My love of baseball we'll talk more about later ...

How did you get into baseball?
Going back 15 years or so, we hardly got any TV coverage over here of any of the American sports and then Channel 4 began showing American Football and I started watching it. At first I didn't understand the rules but after watching a few games I started to get the hang of it. The Dallas Cowboys were down and out at the time, but they started a resurgence which, a few years later, saw them win countless Super Bowls.

In 1992 or 1993 I think, possibly 1994 we went to California for almost 4 weeks and I got to see the Dallas Cowboys defeat their arch-rivals the Washington Redskins live on TV but, as you know, American Football is only played once a week, whereas Baseball is played every day. In between our adventures and excursions I began watching baseball games when we were chilling out at Motels.

Again I didn't understand the rules but by the end of the holiday I had most of them down on pat. The thing that really got me was the honest enthusiasm of the commentators' and their genuine love for the game of baseball ... they suckered me in. This was the year of Robin Yount's long hitting streak and every time we put the radio on in the car, every station seemed to interrupt its broadcast for an update every time Robin had an at-bat. I was on holiday with my wife and her mother and father, none of them are sports' fans but Robin's hitting streak became a talking point amongst us - it was gripping stuff.

Back home, unfortunately, the baseball coverage let me down so, short of Ceefax, and hunting through newspapers (I knew nothing of the internet then), my interest waned.

Then two things happened almost simultaneously, and a third a few years later, which rekindled my interest big-time. Firstly, I discovered Avalon Hill's "Classic Statis Pro Baseball" game in a games shop. Mine was out of date - I have the player cards for the 1986 season - but it allowed you to manage / coach a team and make all the strategic, tactical decisions during a full 9 innings game where each At-bat is simulated by throwing the dice and comparing the results on an accurate player card for each batter and each pitcher. A full game can be played in about an hour and I learnt to appreciate the finer arts of the tactics and strategy.

Secondly, I watched "Field of Dreams" and instantly became hooked on the history of the game. I purchased "Baseball: An Illustrated History" by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns, all 486 pages of it, and I became fascinated by the history of the game of baseball and the players who played it.

Finally, about 5 or 6 years ago, Channel 5 commenced their excellent TV coverage of baseball (we now get two games a week live during the season, plus every World Series game live) and I really was hooked now. I love it.

How often do you watch the games on TV?
Apart from the World Series itself (when I take time off work on the days after the games to catch up on my sleep, and really annoy Margaret when I come to bed about 5.00 / 5.30 in the morning) I don't watch any of the games live. I tape them and watch them during the day - I'm lucky that I work from home about 60% of the time so its easy to find the time to watch them. This year I tore my Achilles tendon on October 3rd, so it was very easy to find the time to watch them.

The World Series' games, and any other interesting games, I keep - the others, I watch and re-use the tapes. This season I kept the tapes of Mike Mussina's almost perfect game for the Yankees at Boston, Cleveland's incredible come-back against Seattle to win 15-14, Jason Bere's complete game for the Cubs against the Marlins, and the All-star game.

Do you tape games during the season to watch over the winter?
No, as I mentioned earlier I'm fortunate enough to watch them all during the season, however, I do re-watch the good ones in the Winter as well as re-watching my ever growing collection of baseball movies and highlights videos. Kevin Costner's "For Love Of The Game" is on Sky later this month and I must remember to watch it and tape it as I haven't seen it yet. Gets me in the mood for Spring Training.

How did you become a "Top Of The Ninth" reporter?
More by accident than anything else, I think. I'd been a rivals contributor on RamZone for two years or so but didn't even know rivals had a baseball site

I was surfing the net quite a lot for baseball information, because I was researching the Hall of Fame players, and then using their stats to create individual player cards so that they could play in my own "Field of Dreams" games using the Avalon Hill game. Surfing the net one day, probably on the rivals network, shortly before this season's play-offs, I came across a link for TopOfTheNinth. I liked what I saw and emailed Gary to let him know who I was, that I contributed to RamZone, and did he need any more writers? I didn't expect anything to come from it, but Gary checked out my stuff on RamZone and welcomed me onboard the very next day.

Of all the articles you have done for the site is there one that you feel was much better than all of the rest? If so please give your reasons.
That's a difficult one to answer because I explained to Gary that my work on RamZone would take precedence and due to my accident I haven't really been able to do too much on either RamZone or TopOfTheNinth.

I don't really enjoy reporting straight forward news stories like Reggie Sanders signing a one-year deal with the Giants, but prefer things where I need to research. This, of course, has the drawback that it's time consuming and hard work.

I like to think that I can bring something that little bit different to TopOfTheNinth such as the Field of Dreams Challenge Series and the Hall of Fame Candidates assessments I did. Probably my favourite piece to date, and most satisfying, was the articles I did pre-World Series analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the Diamondbacks and Yankees. Although I was wrong in predicting the Yankees would win, my analysis of the various strengths and weaknesses were virtually spot-on, and I was correct that it would be damn close. It was satisfying because I don't consider myself a baseball expert, and it was the first time I'd put myself on the spot in an analysis situation. I expected a flaming on the Message Board, but it never came.

Have you ever traveled to the US and taken in a game? If so where?
Yes, this season in fact. We again went to California on holiday in June and, this time, I achieved a life-long ambition by attending a Major League baseball game.

The game I got to see was the final game of a three-game series between the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners at Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego. I wasn't expecting a good game as Seattle (52-14, at the time) had already won the first two games comfortably against San Diego (30-38) by 6-1 (I think) and 9-2 but, as it turned out, I was to witness a great game. Being a Motel resident I felt I should support the home team so I visited the Qualcomm Stadium shop, purchased a Padres cap, shirt, program, scorecard, and key-ring, and unbelievably, my adopted Padres didn't disappoint in the game itself.

Woody Williams (Padres) and Aaron Sele (Mariners) were the starting pitchers and the game had everything: the Home Plate umpire was replaced after being hit on the wrist by a Cesar Crespo foul ball in the bottom of the 1st; there were 6 home runs, Ryan Klesko, Phil Nevin, Bubba Trammell twice for the Padres, and Mike Cameron and John Olerud for the Mariners; 3 errors, Crespo and Chris Gomez (Padres), and Cameron (Mariners); and a Trevor Hoffman save as the Padres won 11-9. Wow! What a game! I still have my scorecard and the newspaper reports of the game ... and I'll never forget it.

The atmosphere in the Top of the 9th was electric as Trevor Hoffman took the mound to pitch to the top of the Mariners batting order, and far surpassed anything I'd experienced at a football match in this country.

"Trevor! Trevor!" chanted the 36,027 crowd. Ichiro Suzuki (an impressive, class act) produced a lead-off base hit to left field; Mark McLemore struck out, but then Brett Boone singled to right field and Suzuki sprinted all the way round to 3rd; Boone stole 2nd base, and my heart dropped because the Mariners had the tying runs at 2nd and 3rd with only 1 out and the go-ahead run at the plate. But the crowd didn't let up and my heart rose again as the atmosphere swept me away. "Trevor! Trevor!" John Olerud popped up to 3rd base and the runners held, so now there were 2 out, with the tying runs at 2nd and 3rd and pinch-hitter Edgar Martinez coming to the plate as the go-ahead run.

"This is how it should be," the guy next to me said. "The best against the best with the game on the line." The crowd rose to their feet and I joined them. Clapping hands, stamping feet, "Trevor! Trevor!" ringing in my ears, Edgar Martinez v Trevor Hoffman with the game on the line, and the Padres' closer struck him out! Padres win, the Padres win 11-9. Incredible. I feel quite emotional again now, telling you this and the atmosphere when Martinez struck out was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. The pressure on Trevor Hoffman must have been immense but he got the job done - my hero!

Click here to read Part 2 >>>