“Extraordinary…the Mallards story is filled with resilience and creativity.”
– Casey Award winner Rob Neyer, author of Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game
“One of the great baseball success stories of the last 25 years. Just dang fun!”
– John Kovalic, writer/cartoonist and game designer (Apples to Apples, Munchkin)
“An entertaining story!”
– Doug Melvin, Milwaukee Brewers senior advisor and former GM
Expected to fail—and they almost did—in summer 2001, the Madison Mallards became summer-collegiate baseball’s most popular team. Since 2002, the Mallards have become the biggest box-office hit among hundreds of similar teams nationwide, drawing more than 4.3 million fans in team history. Baseball Like It Oughta Be is the phenomenal story of how owner Steve Schmitt, a rural Wisconsin shoe sales marvel, and his young staff turned dust into gold.
Celebrating their 25th year, the Mallards have an entertaining and hilarious history that combines marketing prowess and anything-goes promotions with stories ranging from Gary Coleman’s outrageous appearance to slugger Pete Alonso’s amazing season as a Mallard. Schmitt and team president Vern Stenman turned a downtrodden ballpark into a must-experience destination. The Mallards never went bananas on the field while churning out future pro players. Along the way, they’ve become one of America’s most extraordinary sports teams.
–Interviews with Midwest Writers Room podcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2217249/episodes/17175518 and Madison City Cast podcast https://madison.citycast.fm/podcasts/how-the-mallards-threw-madison-a-curveball
–Appearances coming on the podcasts No Bad Hops! and The Baseball Book Club.
–Send an email to toma998@gmail.com.
Tom Alesia’s work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, San Diego Union-Tribune as well as daily newspapers in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Houston. He wrote one of 2022’s best-selling baseball books, Beauty at Short: Dave Bancroft, the Most Unlikely Hall of Famer and His Wild Times in Baseball’s First Century, described by Wisconsin Public Radio host Larry Meiller as “such a fun book – I really loved this.” The Des Moines Register wrote, “Alesia does more than offer statistics; he brings Bancroft to life!” A longtime Midwest newspaper features writer, Alesia won the National Music Journalism Award. A 35-time marathon finisher and a cancer survivor since 1998, he lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife, Susan. They have a son, Mark, and three dogs.
“An entertaining look at how to build an audience for a sports team when the result on the field is less important to many fans than the entertainment and atmosphere of it. Plenty of interesting characters! Pretty sure it’s the only book to mention Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Gary Coleman and Pete Alonso. A fun read!” – Sports Book Reviews
“Upon first visiting Madison in 2012, I sensed something extraordinary at the Duck Pond. While nothing lasts forever, the Mallards have now thrived for nearly 25 years and just continue to crush it, one summer after another. This book should be studied by every minor- and summer-league executive. The Mallards’ success story is filled with resilience, creativity and community spirit.” – Casey Award winner Rob Neyer, author, Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game
“What a hoot! I still have a Mallards’ uniform hanging on my wall! (Team owner) Steve Schmitt loved to compete. Go Mallards!” – Bill “Spaceman” Lee, renowned pitcher for 14 major league seasons
“It’s a fun journey to a level of baseball most fans never get to visit! The characters, the aspirations, the adventures – all make for a very entertaining tale.” – Marty Appel, baseball historian and author, Pinstripe Empire, the New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss and two-time Casey Award winner
“Baseball Like It Oughta Be shows how a try-anything team overcame the odds to forge an enduring connection with its fans. Tom Alesia’s colorful cast of characters includes front-office sharpies with an eye for eccentric promotions and collegiate players with big-league dreams, plus 25 years’ worth of celebrities, mascots, and bat dogs who enlivened Madison Mallards seasons. Alesia digs up fascinating details, and his fondness for this particular team—and the sport in general—comes through vividly.” – Dean Robbins, author, Wisconsin Idols: 100 Heroes Who Changed the State, the World, and Me
“It’s so much fun! The history brings to the forefront something spectacular in Madison!” – host Bianca Martin, City Cast Madison podcast
“Fantastic!” – Midwest Writers Room podcast
“It captures the wild, inspiring rise of the Madison Mallards. A must-read for anyone who loves the game–or a great underdog story!” – Bruce Adams, owner, Bethesda Big Train
“I loved this book: the story, the players, the owner, team leaders and the Duck Pond! Tom Alesia chronicles the Mallards in so many wonderful ways. I highly recommend it!” – The Baseball Storyteller (Noel Roby)
“An entertaining deep dive” – Jim Polzin, sports columnist, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison)
“The Mallards redefined summer baseball while smashing national attendance records.” – Michael Popke, alt-newspaper Isthmus, Madison
“Tom Alesia burst on the baseball writing scene with his bio of Hall of Famer Dave Bancroft. And I really enjoyed Baseball Like It Oughta Be! An entertaining book about a team that had to be different to succeed. — Gregg Hoffman, Midwest Baseball Report
“Baseball Like it Oughta Be is an underdog story reminiscent of Moneyball, but with a model based on marketing and fun rather than math-driven analytics. Readers will enjoy Tom Alesia’s lively narrative about how the Madison Mallards generated phenomenal levels of support by emphasizing community and the fan experience.” – Kent Krause, author of Sunny Jim Bottomley: A Biography of a Hall of Fame First Baseman and Wahoo Sam Crawford
“The Mallards are so much fun! Grab this book!” – Seattle’s Katie Quinn, The Sports Librarian
“Since the Mallards’ launch in 2001, summer-collegiate baseball has blown up across the country. The Mallards’ focus on fun and baseball created a template for others to emulate. Tom Alesia does a great job telling the entertaining story of the team!” – Doug Melvin, Milwaukee Brewers senior advisor and former general manager
“I loved it – thoroughly enjoyed it!” – Dennis Degenhardt, president, Society of American Baseball Research, Wisconsin chapter
“Sparkling, well-written, comprehensive tale of one of the great baseball success stories of the last 25 years … just dang fun!” – John Kovalic, writer/cartoonist and game designer (Apples to Apples, Munchkin)
“I really enjoyed it! An essential baseball read. Excellent!” – Mary Shea, book club organizer, Society of American Baseball Research, Wisconsin chapter
“It’s the inside story of how the Madison Mallards became summer-collegiate baseball’s top draw and brought new life to a downtrodden ballpark,” – OurSports Central.com
“It is well overdue to put a spotlight on the Madison Mallards operation. There is no team in summer collegiate baseball that is close to them in attendance.” — Dick Radatz, Jr., chairman, Northwoods League
“Long before the Savannah Bananas became a household name, the Madison Mallards took a broken-down ballpark in a failed baseball market and started outdrawing virtually every team in the minor leagues. Tom Alesia skillfully describes their story in this entertaining narrative. This book should be a must-read for anyone in sport!” – Mark Cryan, professor of sport management, former minor league general manager, and co-founder of the Coastal Plains League
The 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox: Grinders & Gamers (contributor), 2025
The National Pastime: Baseball in the Land of 10,000 Lakes (contributor, “A Giant’s Fall … to Minneapolis”), 2024
Doctor, Doctor: Life Lessons from a Veterinarian Turned Physician (memoir with Dr. Joanne Holland), 2024
The National Pastime: Heart of the Midwest (contributor, “Larry Fritsch, Card King” and “Wausau’s Athletic Park Plays with History”), 2023
Wisconsin Poetry Calendar, (2023, 2024, 2025 and the upcoming 2026)
Dave Bancroft should not be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He emerged from his Iowa hometown as an undersized shortstop without batting skills. Signed by one of the 300-plus minor league teams at age 17 in 1909, he lasted only three weeks before being cut, then joined another team and was released again. His rise to become enshrined in Cooperstown as one of baseball’s all-time greats was unfathomable.
Then Garth Became Elvis: A Country Music Writer’s Journey with the Stars, 1985-2010, 2021
Tasty Morsels, A Compilation of Short Fiction, 2019 (contributor of the story “Lemonheads”)
Based in Madison, Wisconsin, since 1993, he’s written for major daily newspapers, including ones in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, St. Louis, San Diego, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis as well as USA Today and magazines from TV Guide to Indiana University Alumni.
Here’s a look at some of his favorites, many from Madison’s Wisconsin State Journal. Now working at McFarland’s Indian Mound Middle School, he loves when students begin lifelong reading and writing journeys.
Five years ago, a drunken driver raced through a stop sign and slammed the Anderson’s family car. The crash killed his parents and brother and left Anderson paralyzed from the chest down. On Tuesday, he won election to Wisconsin’s state assembly.
“Of course, you’re going to get the hits. That’s why I’m coming there,” Green says, practically shouting. “The man upstairs says if I don’t sing, He’s made a mistake concerning Rev. Green.”
“I’ve worked around the clock forever,” says Holland, a veterinarian for decades. Her medical residency will not be finished until she is 59, but she plans to practice medicine, she says confidently, “for 15 to 20 years after it.”
Where Spears excels, though, is in star power. It’s as if she is each personality of Spice Girl rolled into one. She’s a sex kitten one song (her navel should be insured) and a doe-eyed teen the next.
“A guy brought trained condors and one flew out in the audience, and we stood there dumbstruck while it bit an audience member’s back,” Stewart says. “I was staring at this huge bird gawking in the audience. The trainer’s sitting there, `Hey, man, maybe you should go to commercial.’ And I said (angrily), `Hey, maybe you should get your bird.'”
Later I called back: How about a game of H-O-R-S-E at my hoop instead? I expected nothing … until Globetrotter management approved it! The game was set.
