{{Short description|Californian sports and political writer}} {{Multiple issues| {{notability|biographies|date=September 2018}} {{BLP sources|date=November 2008}} {{Cleanup press release|article|date=September 2018}} }} '''Steve Kettmann''' (born in 1962) is a Californian writer known for his political commentary, including ''New York Times'' articles like ''The Californization of U.S. Politics''<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/02/opinion/sunday/california-progressive-politics.html|title=Opinion | The Californization of America|first=Steve|last=Kettmann|work=The New York Times |date=Jun 2, 2018|access-date=Jul 22, 2020|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> and ''The Pirate Party Logs a New Politics'',<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/opinion/the-pirate-party-logs-a-new-politics.html|title=Opinion | New Politics, Ahoy!|first=Steve|last=Kettmann|work=The New York Times |date=May 1, 2012|access-date=Jul 22, 2020|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> and his ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'' columns in support of Christine Blasey Ford, such as ''I Believe Christine Blasey Ford''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/opinion/20180923/steve-kettmann-cruzin-i-believe-christine-blasey-ford|title=Steve Kettmann, Cruzin': I believe Christine Blasey Ford|date=Sep 22, 2018|access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> and ''Thank You, Dr. Ford''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/steve-kettmann-cruzin-thank-you-dr-ford|title=Steve Kettmann, Cruzin': Thank you Dr. Ford|date=Sep 29, 2018|access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> He was a vocal and early critic of the presidency of Donald Trump, organizing and leading a live-reading of George Orwell's ''1984'' at Bookshop Santa Cruz in Northern California as a protest, and writing this cover article, ''Orwell in the Time of Trump'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://goodtimes.sc/cover-stories/orwell-1984-trump/|title=What Can we Learn from George Orwell about Trump?|first=Steve|last=Kettmann|date=Mar 1, 2017|access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> in the Santa Cruz Free Weekly.
==Biography==
Kettmann, born in 1962 in San Jose, California,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hmhbooks.com/|title=Discover Your Next Read | HMH Books | HMH Books|website=www.hmhbooks.com|access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> earned a degree in English literature from UC Berkeley in 1985 and then worked for a year in New York as a general-assignment reporter for Newsday covering politics and other subjects.
Kettmann, despite having written on a wide variety of topics, is best known for his work on several baseball books, most recently ''Baseball Maverick: How Sandy Alderson Revolutionized Baseball and Revived the Mets''<ref>{{cite book|title=Baseball Maverick : How Sandy Alderson Revolutionized Baseball and Revived the mets|first=Steve|last=Kettmann|year=2015|publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |isbn=978-0802119988}}</ref> (Grove Atlantic, April 2015). The book explores Alderson's role as general manager of the Oakland A's in the 1980s and 1990s, including his role as a mentor to the young Billy Beane, who was later made famous in the movie adaption of the Michael Lewis book ''Moneyball''. It also focuses on Alderson's years as general manager of the New York Mets starting in late 2010.
Kettmann was a sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1990 to 1999, covering the Oakland A's for four seasons as a beat writer, and has also written on steroids and baseball for numerous publications, becoming one of the first to state openly that Mark McGwire had used steroids<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/20/sports/backtalk-baseball-must-come-clean-on-its-darkest-secret.html|title=BACKTALK; Baseball Must Come Clean on Its Darkest Secret|first=Steve|last=Kettmann|work=The New York Times |date=Aug 20, 2000|access-date=Jul 22, 2020|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> in an August 2000 article in The New York Times and appearing on CNN as an expert on the subject.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/12/rs.01.html|title=CNN.com – Transcripts|website=transcripts.cnn.com|access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> ''The New Yorker magazine''<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/03/07/dr-juice|title=Dr. Juice|first=Ben|last=McGrath|magazine=The New Yorker|date=28 February 2005 |access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> reported in a 2005 article, Dr. Juice, that he was the ghost-writer of José Canseco's book "Juiced," which was a No. 1 ''New York Times'' best-seller, despite first being the subject of intense controversy. Some commentators contended that Kettmann's background reporting on steroids and baseball was helpful, with New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica going so far as to contend,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/03/30/2008-03-30_jose_canseco_get_me_rewrite.html|title=Jose Canseco: Get me rewrite! – NY Daily News|website=New York Daily News |access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> "Canseco was only honest in his first book because his ghost writer, Steve Kettmann, made him be."
Kettmann's first book was "One Day at Fenway," which described a single game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees on August 30, 2003, from a variety of perspectives. That book, nominated for a Quill Award<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20050620/25476-and-the-nominees-are.html|title=And the Nominees Are...|website=PublishersWeekly.com|access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> and featured in the Farrelly brothers film "Fever Pitch,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kettmann.com/oneday/index.html|title=One Day at Fenway|website=www.kettmann.com|access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> generated mostly positive reviews, but ESPN writer Rob Neyer was an outspoken critic.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070902143144/http://www.robneyer.com/OneDayFenway.html Neyer, Rob (September 6, 2004). "Neyer, Kettmann, Davidoff, & Amazon". RobNeyer.com. Archived from the original on September 2, 2007. Retrieved February 1, 2011.]</ref>
Previously, Kettmann edited "Game Time,"<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/25/books/in-baseball-you-don-t-know-nothing.html|title=In Baseball, You Don't Know Nothing|first=Joel|last=Conarroe|work=The New York Times |date=May 25, 2003|access-date=Jul 22, 2020|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> a collection of Roger Angell's baseball writing from the New Yorker spanning forty years. Originally published in early 2003, the book was reviewed on the front page of the New York Times Book Review. "Edited by the sportswriter Steve Kettmann," wrote Joel Conarroe, "the 29 selections could be thought of as 'Roger's Greatest Hits,' except that there is little reason to make distinctions among his scores of writerly four-baggers."
Kettmann has reported from more than 40 countries for publications including ''The New York Times'', the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''The New Republic'', ''Foreign Policy'', the ''Washington Monthly, ''GQ'', ''Parade'', ''The Village Voice, Salon.com and Wired.com, the ''Berliner Zeitung'', ''Die Welt'' and ''Der Spiegel''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-palau-president-johnson-toribiong-accepting-uighurs-a-gesture-of-goodwill-and-humanity-a-629951.html|title=Interview with Palau President Johnson Toribiong: Accepting Uighurs a 'Gesture of Goodwill and Humanity' – DER SPIEGEL – International|first=DER|last=SPIEGEL|newspaper=Der Spiegel|date=11 June 2009 |access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> From 1999 to 2012 he was based primarily in Berlin<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2010/0116/politik/0108/index.html|title=Nachrichten aus Berlin, Deutschland und der Welt|work= Berliner Zeitung|access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> and from 2000 to 2001 wrote a weekly column for the ''Berliner Zeitung'' newspaper as an American in Berlin, appearing every Wednesday. A 1999 Arthur F. Burns Fellow,<ref>{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716113730/http://www.icfj.org/burns/september2009_full.html |date=July 16, 2011|title=German Elections: An American View |author=Clay Risen (Burns 2009) }}</ref> he speaks German as well as some Spanish.
His past books include "What a Party!" co-written with current Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, which debuted in February 2007 at No. 5 on New York Times best-seller list,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940CE4D9153FF932A25751C0A9619C8B63|title=BEST SELLERS: February 11, 2007|website=query.nytimes.com|access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref> and "Letter to a New President,"<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dyjbzj_qC8kC&q=steve+kettmann+robert+byrd|title=Letter to a New President: Commonsense Lessons for Our Next Leader|first=Robert C.|last=Byrd|date=Jun 24, 2008|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9780312383022|access-date=Jul 22, 2020|via=Google Books}}</ref> co-written with Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, published in June 2008, book-length advice to whoever would follow George W. Bush. In an interview with The Hill newspaper in Washington, Kettmann described how he and Byrd worked on the book and said, "To him, history is a living, breathing presence in his life that he consults often, like a good friend that is always at his side."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thehill.com/capital-living/20-questions/20862-20-questions-with-steve-kettmann|title=20 Questions with Steve Kettmann|first=Betsy|last=Rothstein|date=Jul 14, 2008|website=TheHill|access-date=Jul 22, 2020}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2010/0303/meinung/0023/index.html Nachrichten aus Berlin, Deutschland und der Welt - ''Berliner Zeitung''] * [http://www.kettmann.com/oneday/index.html One Day at Fenway] {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kettmann, Steve}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:American political journalists Category:American sportswriters Category:San Francisco Chronicle people Category:Journalists from California Category:Sportswriters from California