Hobey...LIVES?

The fading hockey immortal, Hobey Baker, will get a boost on the centennial of his controversial death. Hobey Baker, Upon Further Review, will go on sale in December, 100 years after the captain of the 103rd U.S. Army Aero Squadron took an ill-fated turn and fell to his death in Toul, France, a month after the World War I Armistice.

Hobey's death has been an unsolved mystery for a century. With his orders home tucked into his leather flying jacket, Captain Baker insisted on taking one last flight, which initiated a rapid spiral of  events that led to his fatal crash. An intrepid newspaper columnist discovered that Hobey's former fiance—the glamorous Mimi Scott—had been writing Hobey throughout their post-break-up, including the bombshell that she was to wed another man, something Hobey learned the day of his farewell flight.

That column sparked rumors of suicide, a theory supported by plenty of circumstantial evidence, including that Hobey hated the mundane 9-5 working world back in the States, along with his star-crossed love-life. This latest book, Hobey Baker, Upon Further Review, presents the reader with all the relevant evidence necessary to draw a satisfactory conclusion, and a panel of "Hobeyologists" weigh in with their educated guesses on this long debated topic.

Hobey Baker is a household name to any American college hockey player, but he is more myth than human being. Upon Further Review gathers every known source, follows every lead, to return this fading legend back to flesh and blood.

I have been intrigued by Hobey's story since 1991, when Ron Fimrite wrote his long-form masterpiece for Sports Illustrated. When both HBO and ESPN omitted Hobey from their list of greatest athletes of the 20th Century, I felt a great injustice had been done to Hobey, a Hall-of-Famer in both hockey and college football. When the funding fell through for a documentary, I set a course to write this book in time for the centennial of his fantastic death. Hobey Baker, Upon Further Review, will settle the century-long debate as to how—and why—America's most romantic athlete perished so pointlessly.