Lawrence Baldassaro, Professor Emeritus of Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is the author of Beyond DiMaggio: Italian Americans in Baseball, editor of Ted Williams: Reflections on a Splendid Life, and co-editor of The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity. He has published articles in numerous sports encyclopedias and journals, has been a contributing writer for the Milwaukee Brewers Game Day magazine since 1990, and wrote the chapter on sports for The Routledge History of Italian Americans. He resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.