#19 - Brad Balukjian - a podcast by John Buck

Brad Balukjian is an American writer and science professor. He is best known for his memoir The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball's Afterlife.

In 2015, Balukjian opened a pack of unopened baseball cards from 1986 and decided to track down all of the players inside. 

A single, unopened pack of 1986 baseball cards. A vow to track down all the players inside. What could possibly go wrong?

His journey became the memoir The Wax Pack (2020), which went on to become a Los Angeles Times bestseller.

Balukjian said his book was rejected by 38 publishers before the University of Nebraska Press offered him a contract.

The Wax Pack Players: Al Cowens, Carlton Fisk, Don Carman, Doc Gooden, Garry Templeton, Gary Pettis, Jaime Cocanower, Lee Mazzilli, Rance Mulliniks, Randy Ready, Richie Hebner, Rick Sutcliffe, Steve Yeager, Vince Coleman

His book, On the open road in search of baseball's afterlife is the true story of tracking down all the players in a single pack of 1986 Topps on a 11,341-mile road trip across the U.S. What started out as a fit of nostalgia became something much bigger than baseball: A meditation on the loss of innocence, what it means to grow up, and the surprising gift accessible to us all: Impermanence.

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