BEHIND THE MASK: My Double Life in Baseball

In his hotly-controversial New York Times bestselling autobiography, former National League umpire Dave Pallone rips the homophobic mask off major league baseball with a brutal candor that bristles with drama and truth. But the real kicker here is Pallone's parallel, and explicit, account of his coming to grips with his sexuality in a sports culture that remains staunchly homophobic (no sportsman in Major Leaue Baseball has "come out" publicly since Pallone). In remarkably-detailed, funny, touching, outrageous, and sexy stories, he openly explores a complex life fraught with persecution, exhilaration, tragedy, and glamour (like brief affairs with a major “heartthrob” film star and a popular "macho" baseball player) without self-promotion or self-pity. In bold, frank talk, Pallone opens himself to more public scrutiny than any other professional sportsperson in recent memory, while reminding us that our culture still wrestles with how to accept all of its citizens equally.