Occasionally, out of the ether, a missive arrives that tells us that our writing hasn’t fallen on deaf ears. We were delighted to receive an email from Parth Taneja, a law student in Washington, D.C. The letter (slightly edited for length and clarity) is self-explanatory . . . and very welcome.

I hope this finds you well.  I am writing to convey my dear appreciation for the book, Right off the Bat. I bought this book in 2011 after listening to one of your media appearances.  It was shelved very nicely for the longest of times in my audiobooks section of my phone. About two weeks ago, I finished watching the baseball documentary by Ken Burns. Ken, I feel, is a true romantic about the sport. As a romantic of a sport similar to baseball, I appreciate the sentiment and emotion that he brought to the project. It was the same I felt when I was listening to your book.

As someone who is a relatively new migrant to the States, I feel to learn baseball is to learn about America. It is a sport so much like cricket, where you can take your son to show him the perfect cover drive by Michael Hussey or Rahul Dravid or talk about life with. Although I do not have a family, one day I hope to ensure they get to taste the finer things life.  Few things are finer than the two sports. Nothing better than sipping a nice Chardonnay while watching Joe Root make a hundred against the Australians, like I did last summer [2013] at Lord’s.

Anyhow, thank you for the opportunity to for allowing me to romanticize the great things in life. Good work with the book. I hope to share it as the manifesto of the similarities of the two games from here on in.