Starting in 1976, Tom Gage covered more than 5,000 Detroit Tigers games in 36-plus years as a baseball beat writer. He was honored with the Baseball Writers Association's J.G. Taylor Spink Award, now the Career Excellence Award, in 2015 at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The following year he was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and, in 2020, into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame. He's been the recipient of multiple career achievement awards and twice was named Michigan Sportswriter of the Year. This is his fifth book. Gage and his wife, Lisa, have a grown son and two grandchildren.

Alex Avila is a former Major League Baseball catcher who played from 2009 to 2021, most notably with the Detroit Tigers.