Books
HeyPeterK.com"Sometimes the people who don’t crave attention are the ones who deserve it the most. That’s Felipe Alou. He is one of the best and most caring teammates I ever had. I learned from him what leadership is all about and what it means to be a man. I admired him greatly, first as a fan, then as a teammate and now, most importantly, as a friend. Felipe has lived a Hall of Fame life and in Alou you’ll learn why"
Joe Torre
2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame
HeyPeterK.com"Sometimes the people who don’t crave attention are the ones who deserve it the most. That’s Felipe Alou. He is one of the best and most caring teammates I ever had. I learned from him what leadership is all about and what it means to be a man. I admired him greatly, first as a fan, then as a teammate and now, most importantly, as a friend. Felipe has lived a Hall of Fame life and in Alou you’ll learn why"
Joe Torre
2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame
HeyPeterK.com"Peter Kerasotis is a great author and writer. His style immediately draws you in and takes you on a wonderful journey. Whenever you see his byline, know that you're about to embark on something special."
George Raveling
Naismith Memorial and College Basketball Hall of Fame
Director of International Basketball for Nike
HeyPeterK.com"My first encounter with Peter was the greatest interview I ever had with a sports writer. As a former college basketball coach and businessman, I was amazed at the quality of his work. The article was exciting, precise and detailed. Peter and I then engaged in writing my biography, “Once a Coach Always a Coach: The Life Journey of Thomas Errol Wasdin". The project was extremely important to me and Peter delivered beyond anything I ever imagined. He is a pleasure to work with and it is my honor to recommend him to anyone contemplating a biography. I call Peter my biographer, but more importantly my friend."
Thomas E. Wasdin
Former Head Basketball Coach, Jacksonville University
Entrepreneur and Businessman
HeyPeterK.com"Peter Kerasotis covered the Florida Gators during the twelve years that I was their head coach. He was extremely knowledgeable, passionate and fair in his coverage of me and the Gators. I enjoyed our coach-journalist relationship.”
Steve Spurrier
Head Football Coach
University of South Carolina
HeyPeterK.comPRAISE FOR "ONCE A COACH, ALWAYS A COACH: THE LIFE JOURNEY OF THOMAS ERROL WASDIN"
"It's fascinating, and it brings back a lot of memories for me."
John Feinstein
National Radio Host and Best-Selling Author
HeyPeterK.comPRAISE FOR "ONCE A COACH, ALWAYS A COACH: THE LIFE JOURNEY OF THOMAS ERROL WASDIN"
"Peter Kerasotis has written a richly detailed biography, which includes a thoroughly reported account of a very important time and place in the history of college basketball. I enjoyed this jaunt down memory lane, and I have no doubt any college basketball fan will enjoy it as well."
Seth Davis
Sports Illustrated Senior Writer, Author of "Wooden: A Coach's Life"
HeyPeterK.com"
If Alou was only about Felipe Alou’s legendary baseball career as a player and manager it would be an important read, but it’s much more. Alou not only captures an extraordinary life, it delivers compelling insights into life's realities. As the first to go from the Dominican Republic to Major League Baseball – both as a player and a manager – Felipe Alou opened the way for his brothers Matty and Jesús, his fellow countrymen and for scores of other Latin Americans. If you don’t know much about Felipe Alou, this book will convince you that he is as special as anyone who has ever worn a major league uniform. For those of us who know and admire him, reading Alou makes us appreciate how he is even greater than we imagined."
Tony La Russa
2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame
HeyPeterK.com"
It’s an honor to have Felipe Alou as my friend and especially to have him in my career and in my life as a mentor. He blazed a trail for Latin Americans few men could’ve accomplished and he did it with class and character. His story, and what he overcame and achieved, will embarrass and enlighten, sadden and inspire, anger and uplift. Felipe Alou is one of the best ambassadors for baseball and an even better ambassador for the human race."
Reggie Jackson
1993 National Baseball Hall of Fame
HeyPeterK.com"The big, sprawling, international baseball life of Felipe Alou is a grand story all its own. But Alou becomes much more than a baseball book in the hands of co-author Peter Kerasotis. His storytelling skills give Alou the depth and cultural richness that take you beyond the diamond."
Tom Verducci
Sports Illustrated senior writer, three-time National Sportswriter of the Year and best-selling author
HeyPeterK.com"I was a minor league manager when I heard the booming voice and felt the huge persona that is Felipe Alou, and I thought I was in the presence of a baseball god. Then I got to know this remarkable man; a man who made my path to managing in the major leagues easier when he didn't have to."
I was a minor league manager when I heard the booming voice and felt the huge persona that is Felipe Alou, and I thought I was in the presence of a baseball god. Then I got to know this remarkable man; a man who made my path to managing in the major leagues easier when he didn't have to.
Buck Showalter
3-time American League Manager of the Year
HeyPeterK.com"Felipe Alou played with Willie Mays and managed Barry Bonds. He played a Major League game in the same outfield with his two brothers, and then saw his son become a Major League star in his own right. He was the first Dominican born and raised to make it to the Major Leagues, opening the door for scores of others. Felipe Alou has a rich and vivid story to tell, and here it is."
Bob Costas
Emmy Award Winning Broadcaster
Alou: My Baseball Journey
By Peter Kerasotis
Publication Date: April 1, 2018
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I knew I had some gold nuggets going into this project with Felipe Alou, but I soon realized that I’d struck a goldmine. I keep hearing from people who have read “Alou: My Baseball Journey” that it’s more than a baseball book. And it is. This is incredible story of a kid who grew up in a 15×15-foot shack in the Dominican Republic and became the first man to leave that island and become a Major League Baseball player and manager, as well as the first Dominican to play in the World Series.
What makes this story more remarkable is that Felipe Alou was on track to become a doctor when baseball came calling. He was a track & field athlete attending the University of Santo Domingo when he make the Pan-Am Games in Mexico City in 1955. One of the baseball players on the Dominican team was kicked off and sent home for insubordination, and they came to Felipe, telling him they needed him more on the baseball team than track & field. He batted cleanup for the team and led them to the gold medal, beating the US in the process.
A scout saw him and came to the family home and offered him 200 pesos to sign a pro contract. Knowing that his struggling father owed the grocer 200 pesos, and also knowing that he was years away from becoming a doctor and helping his family financially, he signed for those 200 pesos. Two years later he was playing in the same San Francisco Giants outfield with Willie Mays. Soon his two younger brothers, Matty and Jesús, joined him. Later his son Moisés also became a major league players.
I’m extremely proud of this book. I think it’s some of my best work. When you combine good work with a great story you get a book that a lot of people have given positive reviews to.
Extreme Winning: 12 Keys to Unlocking The Winner Within You
By Peter Kerasotis
Publication Date: November 3, 2015
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I collaborated on Extreme Winning: 12 Keys to Unlocking the Winner Within You with Orlando Magic vice president Pat Williams, drawing on his experiences that span more than a half century in sports and sports management. Pat is a renowned motivational speaker and a fountainhead of knowledge and insight. If you look on the Orlando magazine tab on this website, you’ll see two magazine stories I wrote about him – one chronicling his prodigious reading habits (which won a Florida Magazine Association first place Charlie Award for best feature story) and another on Pat’s cancer battle. It was a pleasure working on this project with him.
What Pat has discovered, and I agree with him, is that winning has a broader meaning than a mark on a ledger after a competition. It isn’t just sports centric. It permeates sports, business, self and every aspect of life.
Extreme Winning is a very motivational book. I felt motivated just writing it. The book breaks down the 12 characteristics Pat has observed in all winners, and how they do them to an extreme. You can, too. Each characteristic is its own chapter:
1. Extreme Dreams
2. Extreme Preparation
3. Extreme Focus
4. Extreme Passion
5. Extreme Work
6. Extreme Responsibility
7. Extreme Attitude
8. Extreme Goals
9. Extreme Perseverance
10. Extreme Competition
11. Extreme Desire
12. Extreme Teamwork
My friend Bruce Bochy, the three-time World Series-winning manager, wrote the foreword.
Once A Coach, Always A Coach: The Life Journey of Thomas Errol Wasdin
By Peter Kerasotis
Publication Date: March 17, 2014
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America held little promise during the 1930′s, when the Great Depression vice gripped the country and a boy named Thomas Errol Wasdin was born into the hardscrabble farmland of Waldo, Florida. Wasdin was only months old when his mother died of blood poisoning. Soon afterward, he and his sister were sent to live with their Uncle and Aunt, who raised them with old-fashioned values rooted in discipline and hard work. These became character traits that served Wasdin well – later at the University of Florida and eventually throughout his life. And what a life it has been; rich and varied, and not without heartache and an ongoing, debilitating battle with Trigeminal Neuralgia, which the medical profession chillingly refers to as the Suicide Disease. Wasdin was part of the two-man coaching staff that took Jacksonville University to the pinnacle of college basketball – the 1970 NCAA Championship Game against John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins, the most powerful program in college sports history. He then went on to become a successful businessman and community leader. It is a life lived in full, and a life story worth reading.
Stadium Stories: Florida Gators
By Peter Kerasotis
Publication Date: September 1, 2005
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Relive Classic Moments in Gator History!
Thrilling victories, crushing defeats, comical mishaps, and colorful coaches, players, and fans-these are the legendary moments and larger-than-life personalities that have made the Florida Gators a gridiron favorite.
In Stadium Stories: Florida Gators, veteran journalist Peter Kerasotis shares his favorite memories of this beloved team. Together you’ll relive the highs and lows and become reacquainted with some of the team’s all-time greatest heroes and legends including:
- The decades-old border war between the Gators and the Bulldogs of Georgia
- Steve Spurrier’s glory years at Florida, both as a player and a coach
- Superstar players, including Emmitt Smith, Wilber Marshall, and Danny Wuerffel
- The highs and lows from annual gridiron battles with Gators archrival Florida State
- Mr. 2-Bits-the greatest Gator fan of them all