Mansolino pens children’s book

By Andy Bitter

Published: April 26, 2008

The clock approached 7 a.m. one winter morning two years ago as Tony Mansolino prepped to substitute teach another class, a nice way to make some money during baseball’s offseason, despite the early — and very un-baseball-like — hours.
Mansolino, a utility player who had just finished his first year in the Pirates’ system, thought there had to be a better way to make a few extra bucks in the offseason. His idea? Write a children’s book about something he held very dear in life: baseball.
So he did. Two years later Mansolino, who’s in his second year with the Hillcats, released his finished product, “Dreams Will Come, Dreams Will Go,” an inspirational story of a career minor leaguer trying to pursue his major league dream.
“It’s a melting pot of everybody’s experiences,” Mansolino said. “Mine, my coaches, our coordinators, old players that I respect a lot that are now retired.
“It’s all kinds of stuff that I pieced together. … There were times I’d see stuff happen in the clubhouse, and I’d be like, ‘Huh, that would fit nicely,’ and I’d word it into the story in my own way.”
The story chronicles the season of Rock Rogers, a Crash Davis-like minor leaguer who’s grinding his way through his 12th and presumably final year.
Written in a rhyming couplet, the book covers all of the minor league experience. One scene revolves around Rogers seeing one day that his name isn’t on the lineup card, a feeling to which Mansolino can relate.
“It stinks,” he said. “You walk in and see your name under the bench column. It’s frustrating and you’ve got to grind it out, and it’s kind of something Rock did during the course of his career, is he just grinded and grinded and grinded no matter what. Whether he was sitting on the bench or playing in the game, he played as hard as he could all the time.”
Perseverance is the theme of the book, which culminates with (spoiler alert!) Rogers finally making it to the big leagues.
That Mansolino even got it published was a tale of determination as well. He began writing last winter and continued once the season began, hammering out chapters on bus trips and in cramped clubhouses. Being around a minor league setting was perfect.
“If you ever got writer’s block — which I did, I got it a lot, especially because this isn’t exactly my forte — it was nice because I always had something going on around me,” he said. “All I had to do was pay attention and it gave me great ideas.”
Getting it published, a daunting task for any first-time author, was even tougher.
“It might be harder than breaking into the big leagues, to be honest with you,” Mansolino said. “You’ve got to have a connection, one that I don’t have.”
His solution was to start his own publishing company, which he did (Play Ball Publishing), and contract out the production of the book. He got help with art from his older brother’s girlfriend Lauren Tague, who did the book’s illustrations.
Publishing it himself also helped Mansolino donate some of the book’s proceeds to the Bruce Kaye Foundation, an organization set up by the family of a former college teammate of his whose father died of a brain tumor. The foundation helps families seek different treatment options that give brain tumor patients a chance to live longer than expected.
The book ($16.75 at       http://www.playballpublishing.com) has gotten good reviews. Through his major league connections (his father Doug is a long-time major league coach who is currently a minor league infield coordinator with the Phillies), Mansolino has gotten plenty of big league endorsements.
Several quotes adorn the back cover, from Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell, Blue Jays shortstop David Eckstein and former Astros second baseman Craig Biggio, who enjoyed it so much he ordered a bundle for the high school team he works out with to read.
That part has surprised Mansolino, who read the book at a few Bradenton, Fla., area elementary schools during spring training and plans to do the same in Lynchburg. Though it is targeted for children ages 5 to 12, he has found that even older people get something from its message.
“It is an inspiring story,” Mansolino said. “The guy just grinds and grinds and grinds. It’s something I think everybody can relate to. Everybody’s been down in the dumps in your own career, you’re kind of stuck and don’t know what to do. You want to bag it and whatever.
“So many times if you just stick it out and grind through it, good things happen.”