On the Same Page with Buzz Bissinger

Best-selling, Pulitzer Prize winning author Buzz Bissinger brings his new book, "Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager," to "AETN Presents: On the Same Page,"

"Three Nights in August" goes behind the scenes of a three-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and their rivals the Chicago Cubs. Bissinger explores the strategy, luck and emotions that Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa says contribute to "beautiful baseball." Bissinger examines numerous aspects of the game, including: recent changes in how baseball is played, skyrocketing salaries, player motivation, steroid use and rare insights on baseball's most intense moments. The book's popularity has kept it on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 17 weeks.

Bissinger is the best-selling author of "Friday Night Lights," which was named the best sports book of the past 25 years by ESPN and was made into a movie starring Billy Bob Thornton. He has won the Pulitzer Prize and the Livingston Award for his journalism and is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

This "AETN Presents" interview was conducted by Kane Webb, assistant editorial page editor for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, who spoke with Bissinger during the second annual Arkansas Literary Festival in downtown Little Rock on April 27. The interview was taped at Rivermarket Books and Gifts in the Central Arkansas Library System.

Among those discussing "Three Nights in August" with OTSP host Tommy Sanders at That Bookstore at Mountebanq Place in Conway are: Steve Wright, a freelance writer from Fayetteville and a Batesville native who has served as a sportswriter at the Northwest Arkansas Times, Arkansas Gazette, Arkansas Democrat and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; his daughter Casey Wright, a 2004 graduate of Fayetteville High School and student at the University of Arkansas who claims to love the Cardinals almost as much as her father; and Taylor Carr, a lifelong baseball fan and former baseball broadcaster and sports reporter who now teaches in the Harding University communications department.

"On the Same Page" has been called "Good television for people who love good books." Previously featured authors include: Crescent Dragonwagon, "Passionate Vegetarian;" Rick Bragg, "All Over but the Shouting;" Fannie Flagg, "Standing in the Rainbow;" Donna Tartt, "The Little Friend;" Sandra Cisneros, "The House on Mango Street" and Patricia McKissack, "Precious and the Boo Hag." Visit the program homepage at www.aetn.org/otsp.

The series is part of "AETN Presents," which has highlighted several special performances in recent years and has broadened its scope to include a variety of arts and cultural subjects.

The Arkansas Educational Television Network provides lifelong learning opportunities, improves and enhances Arkansans' lives and celebrates the unique culture of Arkansas through its programming. AETN's five transmitters and numerous cable system connections give it statewide reach.