Local sports author Roger Yoder to attend author fair at Hillsdale Library

HILLSDALE — Michigan and local author Roger Yoder will be stopping in Hillsdale for book event this Saturday, June 18. Yoder's latest book, "Detroit Tigers: Michigan's Favorite Sports Team", features a large collection of various factoids and information revolving around the Tigers' organization and their history in the state of Michigan.

The event will be held at the Hillsdale Community Library from 10 a.m. through 2 p.m. This is an opportunity to purchase a personalized book for Father's Day, a friend and for an anniversary or birthday. You cant contact Yoder for more information at the book's Facebook page (under the same title), by telephone at 517-539-1903 or email at umlbbs@yahoo.com.

There are a total of 1,448 game reviews during the seasons from 1901 through 2021. The Tigers monthly record for each season is indicated along with several games reviewed with highlights for each month of every season. Forgotten participants in baseball such as umpires, batboys and ball boys are also mentioned and discussed periodically throughout the book, which functions as a complete encyclopedia of the team. Many of the individuals connected throughout the team history have listings for their hometown and where they went to school.

Readers can find a plethora of analytical information about each team and each season of the Tigers including analytics that go back decades. Some of these include analytics such as Most Effective Hitter and Most Effective Hitters. MEH compares overall offensive production of positional players in 15 categories. MEP compares pitchers utilizing 15 areas of pitching. These stats help make up five All-Time teams that are featured in the book. Each team includes a manager, seven starting pitchers, seven relievers, three by position, two at designated hitter and two as utility players.

The book also features a top 150 Tigers ranking and a top 10 by position, which are all based on these new analytics.

Yoder grew up in Hillsdale County and attended North Adams-Jerome High School. As a member of the High School's Wall of Fame, Yoder was inspired to find the local connections to the Tigers and the book took off from there.

Local enthusiasts can find a vast collection of information that ties many Hillsdale County community residents to the organization. Such connections include Bob Duncan who was a former coach for Hillsdale College. Johnny Williams, a Tiger minor-leaguer, graduated from North Adams High School and Hillsdale College.There have been three Tiger owners with a local connection (Tom Monaghan-Jackson County, Fred Knorr-Hillsdale County and Frank Navin-Lenawee County).

Fred Knorr is a Hillsdale College graduate and was the owner of WKHM in Jackson. Many other local connections can be explored in the book's 574 pages.

Roger Yoder grew up in South-Central Michigan and graduated from North Adams-Jerome High School. He served 20 years in the United States Navy; having earned 21 medals. Roger was the 1997 Military Person of the Year. He was inducted into the Hillsdale County Veterans Hall of Fame in 2002, Michigan Military and Veterans Hall of Honor in 2019 and the North Adams-Jerome High School Wall of Fame in 2019.

His love for sports included serving as head coach of the 1982 Northern European Ladies Regional Basketball Tournament champions, assistant men’s college basketball coach, two base tennis championships, 1983 BPAA U.S. Open Pro-Am first runner-up, joined the Professional Bowlers’ Association in 1984 and the 1987 All-Navy bowling camp. Roger has 42 years of media experience at newspapers, radio stations and sports anchor for televised news. His memberships have included the Professional Football Writers Association of America, official baseball scorer, MLB Press box and Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

The book is dedicated in memory of Landon Hall. Landon died at the age of 12 on August 22, 2018. Landon was preparing to enter the seventh grade at Addison Community Schools. He had a love for all sports and wore his favorite number (2) as a proud Panther in football, basketball, and baseball.

The book can currently be purchased at Barnes and Noble or Amazon for $32.95.

This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Local author Roger Yoder to hold book event at Hillsdale Library