A story worth telling

If people have ever had the chance to hear Lou Brunswick tell his life stories, they've been fortunate.

The stories he has told - from his childhood days to playing high school baseball with Wally Post to serving in Korea and then teaching and coaching baseball in Coldwater - could easily be a great candidate for a book.

That thought has become reality as "Everyone Counts: Faith, Family & My Life in Baseball" will be released officially Monday.

The inspiration of the book came out of the Brunswick children's idea of having Lou and his wife Ann dictate memories into a tape recorded to be preserved for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

"They got me a dictaphone for me and Ann," said Lou Brunswick from his home, located past the right field fence of Veterans Field in Coldwater. "They started listening to (the recordings) and someone made the remark 'Boy, you have all that stuff, you ought to make a book out of it.' "

Don Hensley, who co-authored the book with Brunswick, got to know the Brunswick family when he was sports editor at the Bellefontaine Examiner. Mark Brunswick, the baseball coach at Bellefontaine High School, made the suggestion of having Hensley write the book.    "I really got to know the Brunswick family well. We would see them, socialize and go to the same church," said Hensley via telephone interview. "I got a call (from the family) on Labor Day in 2016 and they had been interested in writing a book about their dad, that he had some great stories and wanted to know if I wanted the opportunity."

Over the next 2 1/2 years, Hensley worked with the Brunswick family and listened to the hundreds of hours of recordings. Also available were scrapbooks collected by the family detailing his playing and coaching careers. Hensley also talked to the family and soon former players and others who have known Lou through baseball sent letters with anecdotes and stories for the book

"I loved every minute of it," Hensley said. "He's an amazing man. Great baseball coach, but if you just judge him by what he has done on the baseball field, you're missing a whole lot because there's a whole lot to the man that's more than baseball."

As he became move involved, Hensley knew that this was much more than a story of a Hall of Fame baseball coach.

"I realized that there was much more here than baseball. I struggled how to put it all together," said Hensley. "I interviewed Lou several times and members of his family. Former players started to find out about the project and wrote letters. I used a lot of the letters as quotes in the book. … I would listen to hours of stories (recorded by Lou Brunswick). It took me about a year to get through the tapes and the scrapbooks and the interviews. Then I sat down and started writing. It was an incredible experience."

Once the information was put in front of him, Hensley had a new issue.

"As I was putting it together I was thinking 'How am I going to organize this?' " said Hensley. "What I ended up doing was this: There's seven innings in a high school baseball game (and) seven kids (in the Brunswick family). The book is set up like a baseball game. There's a pregame, there's seven innings. There's an eighth chapter, so there's extra innings, then there's a postgame. Each chapter is a different part of his life.

"The first chapter is about his youth. The second is when he's in high school and meets coach (Charlie) Karcher (St. Henry's baseball coach), who obviously had a huge impact on him," said Hensley. "He also meets Ann at St. Henry."

Among the chapters Hensley particularly favored was the fourth chapter talking about Brunswick during the Korean War with his brother Clete, who was killed in action.  

"Lou gave me boxes of letters (Clete Brunswick) wrote to his mother, letters that Lou wrote to his parents (and replies). The whole (chapter) is through these letters. I don't write much," said Hensley. "I weave the letters back and forth. It's quite heartbreaking, really."

The book then looks at Brunswick's career at Coldwater, which included more than 700 wins and five state championships. One chapter features thoughts and stories from Lou and Ann's seven children.

In addition to Karcher, Brunswick highlighted scout Tony Lucadello.

"Tony was the one who signed me in 1948," said Brunswick. "Then I went to the army and (then) college. One day I was coaching a game and there was Tony. He became part of the family. Mr. Karcher and Tony were way ahead of their time. I copied so many things from them."

And then there is Ann, who appears on the back cover the book wearing a jersey that simply said "LOU's LADY." Daughter Jane Diller described her mother as "A coach's wife."

Brunswick is happy, and humbled, by the final product.

"He did a great job," said Brunswick of Hensley's work. "We went back and forth (in interviews), but he took everything from the dictaphone. I was surprised with what I said."

"I hope the one takeaway people have when they read the book is that Lou is a great coach, but even more, he's a wonderful gentleman," said Hensley. "The book reminds us why we fell in love with baseball in the first place."

At the very end of the book is a list of the results of every game Brunswick coached at Coldwater from 1959 to 1973. The idea came from the phone calls Brunswick occasionally received from former players asking about the score of a game from years gone by.

The book, priced at $18.99 plus tax, shipping and handling, is only available at the website for publisher Rounding Third Publishers at www.rounding-third.com. Starting April 3, copies can be purchased at venues where Brunswick and Hensley will be signing. The pair will sign at the St. Henry Library from 6:30-8 p.m. on April 9, then at McSober's April 13 starting at 2 p.m. and then at the Coldwater Library at April 23 from 6-7 p.m.