John Klima

As the stars burn and the wheel turns, Underland Arcana continues to celebrate the four aspects of the eternal spark: the numinous, the esoteric, the supernatural, and the weird. These are the ways we find new paths. These are the ways we protect our hearts. These are the ways we illuminate monsters. These are the ways we craft our sigils. Cup, shield, sword, and stick: these are our tools. This is the iconography of the Arcana. Here is the second deck, filled with thirty-two stories celebrating the diversity of our experiences, with contributions from D. Thea Baldrick, Hermester Barrington, Brandon H. Bell, Mary Berman, Ben Curl, Marilee Dahlman, Scott Edelman, Rhonda Eikamp, Elad Haber, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, A. P. Howell, Joshua Flowers, H. L. Fullerton, J. Anthony Hartley, Katherine L. P. King, John Klima, Gerri Leen, Avra Margariti, Kimberly Moore, Michelle Muenzler, Christi Nogle, D. T. O'Conaill, W. T. Paterson, Wade Peterson, Mattia Ravasi, Mike Robinson, Erica Sage, M. Shedric Simpson, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Jordan Taylor, Charles Wilkinson, and Eric Witchey.

The rip-roaring story of baseball's most unlikely champions, featuring interviews with Henry Aaron, Bob Uecker and other members of the Milwaukee Braves, Bushville Wins takes you to a time and place baseball and the Heartland will never forget. "Bushville hits the sweet spot of my childhood, the year my family moved to Wisconsin and the Braves won the World Series against the Yankees, a team my Brooklyn-raised dad taught us to hate. Thanks to John Klima for bringing it all back to life with such vivid detail and energetic writing." -- David Maraniss, New York Times bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered In the early 1950s, the New York Yankees were the biggest bullies on the block. They were invincible: they led the New York City baseball dynasty, which for eight consecutive years held an iron grip on the World Series championship. Then the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953, becoming surprise revolutionaries. Led by visionary owner Lou Perini, the Braves formed a powerful relationship with the Miller Brewing Company and foreshadowed the Dodgers and Giants moving west, sparking continental expansion and the ballpark boom. But the rest of the country wasn't sold. Why would a major league team move to a minor league town? In big cities like New York, Milwaukee was thought to be a podunk train station stop-off where the fans were always drunk and wouldn't know a baseball from a beer. They called Milwaukee Bushville. The Braves were no bushers Eddie Mathews was a handsome home run hitter with a rugged edge. Warren Spahn was the craftiest pitcher in the business. Lew Burdette was a sharky spitball artist. Taken together, the Braves reveled in the High Life and made Milwaukee famous, while Wisconsin fans showed the rest of the country how to crack a cold one and throw a tailgate party. And in 1954, a solemn and skinny slugger came from Mobile to Milwaukee. Henry Aaron began his march to history. With a cast of screwballs, sluggers and beer swiggers, the Braves proved the guys at the corner bar could do the impossible - topple Casey Stengel's New York baseball dynasty in a World Series for the ages.

The story of Willie Mays's rookie year with the Negro American League's Birmingham Black Barons, the Last Negro World Series, and the making of a baseball legendBaseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays is one of baseball's endearing greats, a tremendously talented and charismatic center fielder who hit 660 career homeruns, collected 3,283 hits, knocked in 1,903 runs, won 12 Gold Glove Awards and appeared in 24 All-Star games. But before Mays was the ""Say Hey Kid,"" he was just a boy. Willie's Boys is the story of his remarkable 1948 rookie season with the Negro American League's Birmingham Black Barons, who took a risk on a raw but gifted 16-year-old and gave him the experience, confidence, and connections to escape Birmingham's segregation, navigate baseball's institutional racism, and sign with the New York Giants. Willie's Boys offers a character-rich narrative of the apprenticeship Mays had at the hands of a diverse group of savvy veterans who taught him the ways of the game and the world. Sheds new light on the virtually unknown beginnings of a baseball great, not available in other booksCaptures the first incredible steps of a baseball superstar in his first season with the Negro League's Birmingham Black BaronsIntroduces the veteran group of Negro League players, including Piper Davis, who gave Mays an incredible apprenticeship seasonIlluminates the Negro League's last days, drawing on in-depth research and interviews with remaining playersExplores the heated rivalry between Mays's Black Barons and Buck O'Neil's Kansas City Monarchs, culminating in the last Negro League World SeriesBreaks new historical ground on what led the New York Giants to acquire Mays, and why he didn't sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, or Boston Red SoxPacked with stories and insights, Willie's Boys takes you inside an important part of baseball history and the development of one of the all-time greats ever to play the game.