Believe it or not folks, Louisville’s very own Buddy Bat is now a published author. That is, with his brand new children’s book, A Different Kind of Buddy. Which tells the story of the Louisville Bats’ mascot trying to find his way onto a baseball team, only to find major struggles along the way, but learning about something about himself in the journey.
I think I know the question most of you are asking right now, did Buddy write this on a PC, Mac, or by hand? Better yet, do his wings get in the way of a keyboard?
Now, it should be noted that this book was “helped” into print by Doss High School teacher Jeremy Sharfe who has been working very closely with Buddy for the past 11 years. In fact, one might even say that the two are inseparable during Bats’ home games.
Buddy’s friend, Andrew Kirby illustrated the brand new saga of Buddy’s life, which was officially released to the public last Saturday during a Bats’ Open House for Season Ticket Holders, who received a free copy.
Louisville native Buddy slowly took the reins of mascoting for Louisville’s Triple A team in 1998, when the team officially changed its name to the Riverbats- eventually to be called simply the Bats.
At the time, Buddy was taking over for the retiring Louisville Redbird, who currently resides in a very large birdhouse and is enjoying his retirement with his wife. His children flew the coop many years ago, so currently Mr. and Mrs. Redbird are empty nesters.
Sharfe has compared his friend’s book to a modern day “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” story, commenting further that Buddy has never appeared in a children’s book and he certainly hasn’t written one on his own.
For a personal copy contact the Family Scholar House at 813-3086, where you can pick up a book for a donation to the organization
Image courtesy of Courier Journal
