Our friend Todd Drew passed away almost a year-and-a-half ago. In the days after his death, I coped with the sadness by staying busy. I didn’t want to sit with the pain. We talked about Todd on the site as the Banter sat shiva. What can we do? The rest of the Banter writers and I talked about it. What about a compilation of Todd’s work, from his blog Yankees for Justice, and his Shadow Ball columns here at the Banter?

Then Diane Firstman suggested that we compile the Yankee Stadium Memories series into a book. It would have a broader appeal. Made sense to me. So when Skyhorse approached me about doing just that, I knew we had the perfect farewell to Todd.

I’m proud to announce that Skyhorse will release Bronx Banter Presents: Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories this October.

– Alex Belth, BronxBanterBlog.com.

I didn’t know Todd Drew, but I loved his Shadow Games column on Bronx Banter. Belth tells me Drew was a champion of the working man and a fan of great sportswriting. Both were apparent from Drew’s writing.

I wrote a piece about Yankee Stadium 3.0 for the book, and by the time I was done with it, passing it back and forth with Alex for edits, I liked it a lot. That’s not a common phenomenon for me — usually after I spend a certain amount of time on anything, I get sick of it and determine it sucks by the time I actually finish it.

Even if you’re a Yankee-hating Mets fan, I recommend checking out the book. Alex got contributions from an amazing slate of writers, and I feel straight-up honored to be listed in the same table of contents (assuming there’s a table of contents).And there are a ton of your fellow Yankee-haters in there.

Plus I got to use uncensored expletives, which is a no-no here on TedQuarters. I actually got a little carried away with them the first time through and Belth had to ask me to tone it down.