Classroom assignment can launch a career

As we head to the start of a new Manatee County school year on Aug. 10, we get a story from Country Club East's Mark Allen Baker that reminds us how incredibly important education can be.

Baker, a 69-year-old author who has had 30 books published, thought back to his time in sixth grade in the Susquehanna Valley Central School District in upstate New York.

It was during that time Baker's sixth-grade teacher, "Mr. Evans," gave the class a writing assignment in which they could choose the topic. The only requirement was that each student needed to write to someone involved in their chosen topic.

Baker's topic was World War II so he wrote a letter to Gen. Omar Bradley in which he asked Bradley to discuss his feelings about Gen. George Patton. Bradley, indeed, answered back, allowing Baker to complete his assignment.

"It was wonderful," Baker said of the experience. "I learned to go directly to the sources to compile information. This is the power of teachers."

That power changed Baker's life. A lover of different art forms, he never seriously considered being a writer until he met Mr. Evans. And while he continued to use his art skills during his professional career, non-fiction writing eventually crept into the overall picture.

"I loved the process of discovery," he said.

But writing took a backseat to earning a paycheck early in his life. His became a computer graphics artist for General Electric.

"I loved hardware and software," he said. "I also like animation and I would write manuals."

He ended up at a business called Genigraphics, which had broken off from General Electric, for a decade. He ascended into becoming the executive assistant to the president at that company.

In 1990, he switched career paths, building an 8,000 square foot sports bar in Liverpool, New York. A boxing fan, Baker bought the closed-circuit rights to Mike Tyson's fights and started to pack his bar.

"It was the best thing that ever happened to my restaurant," Baker said. 

Upon opening his restaurant in 1990, Baker received a visit from Ed Brophy, who had started a boxing museum in nearby Canastota, New York to honor that town's two world champs, Carmen Basilio and Billy Backus. In 1989, that museum transitioned to become the International Boxing Hall of Fame. 

Brophy knew Baker, whose father was Triple A baseball player Ford Baker, was a huge sports fan by the memorabilia in his restaurant, including a wall of bats used by Major League Baseball players, a Wade Boggs uniform, a Babe Ruth bat, and much more.

He explained to Baker his vision for his boxing museum and convinced him to work at the museum as a volunteer. Baker eventually became a featured author, chairperson, sponsor, and biographer at the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

It also gave him the incentive he needed to launch his writing career. While volunteering at the hall of fame, people would ask him questions about Basilio and Backus. He decided to write a book about them called "Title Town USA."

It was the first of his 14 books that involved boxing.

But his first published book came out in 1990 before "Title Town USA" hit the shelves. It was "The Baseball Autograph Handbook," in which used the lessons he learned from Mr. Evans. The book was published during the memorabilia boom in which people were buying autographed items without knowing if the signatures were legitimate. Krause Publications asked Baker to produce a book that would have authentic samples of the signatures of every player in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

As the book's introduction, he tracked down Joe Sewell, who had been Lou Gehrig's roommate with the New York Yankees. Sewell played 14 seasons with the Cleveland Indians and Yankees from 1920 to 1933 and was known for the fact he struck out only 114 iin 7,132 career at-bats.

"I just wanted him to say what it was like in his day. I was a Yankees fan," Baker said. "I knew he was responsive to requests from people. I had written to him for an autograph years before and he sent it back to me."

Baker sold his sports bar in 1993 to concentrate on writing. Arcadia Publishing and McFarland Publishing have been his main publishers. He was asked if he had any tips for students who might want to become authors in the future.

"First off, and this is pivotal, you have to read everything (about your subject)," he said. "There are no shortcuts. If you read a newspaper account of your subject, you need to read the night before, and the day after, because there might be a retraction. Get your information down, and be thorough.

"The other thing I learn, is not to get the family involved. Relatives are not going to say anything bad about your subject, and nine times out of 10, the information is wrong. Use historical societies, use your sources, and don't ask ridiculous questions."

His best selling book has been "Spies of Revolutionary Connecticut: From Benedict Arnold to Nathan Hale" in which he poured through his personal library of information, copies of revolutionary war letters, books on the revolution, newspaper archives and historical society records. 

"Yes, I consider myself a historian," he said.

Baker, who has lived in Hollywood, Orlando, Tampa, and Lakewood Ranch, was inducted into the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame in June. He already was a member of the Connecticut Boxing Hall of Fame (2023).

His newest book, "William A. Brady — The Life of a Boxing and Broadway Impresario" was released in June."

His work tells the story of William A. Brady, who managed two undisputed heavyweight champions in James J. Jeffries and James J. Corbett, and also was a Broadway mogel who produced more than 260 plays and managed Helen Hayes, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Tallulah Bankhead.

Baker has been asked by friends why he wastes his time writing about boxers and boxing personalities when he could be making serious money by writing about celebrities such as Taylor Swift.

"I am just honored to be able to do this," he said. "I love boxing and the famous people I am able to meet around the sport."

He said his book about Brady was a chance for him to "show my skills in other areas."

Mr. Evans would be proud.