Why baseball? Why television? Those damn sub-plots

MacArthur's Luck is not actually just a book about how World War Two ended differently. It's a book about how American society and the whole world could have gone in a different direction after 1945. So while there's necessarily a lot of alternative military history in the mix, there's also a considerable amount of other things happening.

Think about it this way: if the collapse of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan under different conditions leads to a shooting war with the Soviet Union, then a lot of stuff starts changing in later 1945/early 1946 when the 16 million Americans under arms don't start coming home.

So there are some sub-plots that begin in MacArthur's Luck but don't take off right away--at least not until Stalin's Wager comes out.

The early development of commercial television is one of those threads, as is the very different integration of major league baseball.

So, for kicks and grins, and to eventually stimulate pre-orders, here's a world-of-MacArthur's Luck baseball card for Josh Gibson, "the Black Babe Ruth." I had a lot of fun making it--almost as much fun as thinking up the scenario that will come alive in the second book.

The 1945 Josh Gibson baseball card from the world of MacArthur's Luck.