Dave Barry: Author and Former Little Leaguer

Michael Clarke

So what's the Little League scene like in Armonk, New York? I don't know what it's like now. I know what it was like in 1955: You could be on the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Giants, the Red Sox, the Indians or the Tigers. I think those were the only teams in all of baseball back then. Also electricity had not been invented. I was on the Indians and generally played right field, because that was the place where you were least likely to encounter the baseball.

Did your writing career derail what quite possibly could have been a stellar Major League career? Yes. Many major-league teams were after me, offering million-dollar bonuses, but I, like so many naïve kids with no idea what is important in life, elected to be an English major.

Growing up in suburban New York--does that make you a Met fan or a Yankee fan? New York had three teams then -- the Yankees, the Dodgers and the Giants. I rooted for the Dodgers until they left New York, and then I switched over to simply hating the Yankees. So in that sense I am a Mets fan.

What's it like to have a sewage pump substation named after you? It's a great honor. To my knowledge there is no sewage substation named for-- to pick one example -- Dick Cheney.

I like your description of your band “The Rock Bottom Remainders” as playing music as well as Metallica writes novels. Any chance we'll see you playing with the band soon? And if Metallica did write a novel what do you think it would be called? I don't know what the title would be, but it would contain misspellings.

Can you tell us a little bit about your new book 'Peter and Shadow Thieves'? It's the second in a trilogy of books written by Ridley Pearson and me --the first was "Peter and the Starcatchers" -- telling the story (at least our version) of how Peter Pan came to be.

If you could give us one Little League baseball memory what would it be? Striking out. A lot.