Since the team’s inception in 1991, the Santa Barbara Foresters have grown into arguably the greatest summer college baseball team in the nation.
The team’s 33-year history, which has never featured a losing season, has featured future Major Leaguers and some of the best talent college baseball has had to offer.
That history can now all be found in one place, as longtime Foresters volunteer Jim Buckley has written and published a 330-page book titled ‘Ster It Up! The Story of America’s Most Successful Summer Baseball Team.
“The book is a collection of 30+ years of writing that we’ve done on the Foresters,” Buckley said. “The point of the book is to put as much of the 30-plus year incredible history of the Foresters as I could into one place.
“The subtitle of the book is America’s most successful summer baseball team, and this book is basically the case to prove it.”
The book will be sold at all Santa Barbara Forester games beginning on Thursday, July 4th. Buckley will be in attendance for the 4th of July game to sign copies.
It is also currently available online in paperback form or as an E-book on BookBaby. The book will also be available at Chaucers and the Mesa Bookstore on Tuesday, July 2.
100% of the proceeds for the book, which costs $19.19, will go to the Hugs for Cubs Foundation. More information on the book can be found here.
The book features chapters about each of the team’s seasons, the full history of how the Foresters were founded, the team’s Hugs for Cubs foundation and the volunteers and board of directors and original game programs.
It also contains chapters written by Noozhawk’s Mark Patton and the Independent’s John Zant. The final part of the book is a complete record book of every statistic the Foresters have collected throughout the years.
“In doing the research and putting the pieces together I noticed a few new things even though I thought I knew everything about the Foresters,” Buckley said. “It was really fun to go back and relive so many of these games, many of which I was at.
“It’s been a joy, a treat and an honor to be able to be a storyteller for the Foresters for so long.”
Buckley’s favorite part of the researching and writing process was gathering information from about 50 former Forester players and coaches, many of which told stories that are included in the book.
“I talked to almost 50 different people over the course of 6 or 7 months and got some fantastic stories that have never appeared in print before, they’ve only been told in the dugouts or on the bus,” Buckley said.
“We hope that even the most dedicated fans who have been coming to games for years or decades will find something new and interesting in this book about what it’s like to be a Forester.”
Some of those players went on to have careers in professional baseball, such as Ryan Church and Dylan Axelrod.
“What was great about talking to these guys was hearing how influential two months in Santa Barbara was on their lives,” Buckley said. “Repeatedly I heard guys say this was the best summer they ever spent playing baseball, and these are guys who have had baseball in their lives forever and this still is with them as the best time.
“That’s just a credit to everyone that has been involved with the Foresters over the years, and that’s who I wanted this book to be for.”