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As a kid I was fascinated with sports, and I loved sports more than anything else. The first books I read were about sports, like books about Baseball Joe, as one baseball hero was called.

I love baseball - 'Moneyball' was my favorite book when I was 13.

The books I used to love as a kid, I used to read football books - and by that I mean soccer books - stories about boys in school who started to play football and then became the captain. I'd read them cover to cover. I just got lost in them.

There's certainly a large literature around baseball in the U.S.

I always thought that there was going to be life after baseball, and so I designed that in my life I would have other interests after baseball that I would be able to step into. And I didn't realize the grip that baseball had on me and on my family.

I don't believe that there is any particular book that influenced any 'career' I might have.

I can't pick out one single book that had such a profound personal impact.

I don't think there was a particular book that made me want to write. They all did. I always wanted to write.