Meet the Eckhartz Press Author: Paul M. Banks

 Now that we have such a big stable of talented authors, we're going to take some time to re-introduce them to you this year. This week it's Paul M. Banks the author of the book Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America.

Paul M. Banks

Paul M. Banks runs Thesportsbank.net, a top tier destination for Premier League coverage. His past bylines include Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His first book No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned from a Life in the Sports Media Industry became an assigned textbook in sports journalism classes.

It was through his first book that we became acquainted with Paul. He appeared as a guest on our podcast (Minutia Men Celebrity Interview), and shortly thereafter contacted us with his idea for this book. We were avid readers of his soccer coverage, and knew he had lots of insight to offer, including interviews with some of the biggest stars and coaches in the Premier League, so we greenlit the project. About six months later Paul returned with his completed manuscript. We published it in July of 2021.

Eckhartz Everyday

 *On this day in 2017, two great reviews came in for Eckhartz Press books. Tom Lounges wrote a great review for Mitch Michael's book Doin the Cruise, while Mike Donahue gave a thumbs up to Bill Paige's book Everything I Know I Learned From Rock Stars.

*On this day in 2021, Paul M. Banks held court at Fado's while selling his book Transatlantic Passage.

Eckhartz Everyday

 *Today is former Cubs pitcher Rich Nye's birthday. Rich appeared at our Cubsessions launch party (photo with me) in 2018, along with a few other teammates (Ferguson Jenkins and Gene Hiser)

*Today is former president Barack Obama's birthday. You'll find stories about the former president in Randy Merkin's book Behind the Glass and Rich King's book Ike and Me.

*On this day in 2021, Paul M. Banks got the first copy of his book Transatlantic Passage.

Eckhartz Everyday

*Today is Mike Gentile's birthday (Photo). Mike is the co-author of the Eckhartz Press book Mob Adjacent.

*On this day in 2021, Eckhartz Press author Paul M. Banks appeared on WGN-TV to promote his book Transatlantic Passage.

*On this day in 2014, Eckhartz Press author Bruce Bohrer appeared at Murphy's Bleachers to do a book signing for Best Seat in the House.

*On this day in 2020, Eckhartz Press author Lauren LoGiudice (Inside Melania) got her own podcast on the Radio Misfits podcast network. It's called Reconcile the Aisle.

Eckhartz Everyday

*On this day in 2019, Eckhartz Press author Deb Tokarz (I CU Copper) appeared on the Bill Turck radio program. (Photo: Deb in the middle, Turck co-host Kerri Kendall on the right)

*On this day in 2021, Eckhartz Press author Margaret Larkin was featured in Robert Feder's column in the Daily Herald.

*On this day in 2021, Eckhartz Press author Paul M. Banks appeared on Sports Beezer, to promote his book Transatlantic Passage.

Eckhartz Everyday

 *Today is Ilie Nastase's birthday. The former tennis star is featured in the Eckhartz Press book Signature Shoes. 

*On this day in 2021, Eckhartz Press author Paul M. Banks sat down for a Q&A session. You can read that here.

*Today is also Wayne Messmer's birthday. Wayne was kind enough to appear at a book signing for us a few years ago for Cubsessions.

Eckhartz Everyday

 *14 years ago today, we founded our corporation which remains the parent company for Eckhartz Press. We called it Just One Bad Century. The website still exists as a Chicago Cubs site, providing daily Cubs information here.

*The newest edition of EveryCubEver is now available, and features a poem about today's birthday boy Kris Bryant. It is the only baseball poem in history to use the word Numnutz. That's a guarantee.

*Sportscaster Dave Kerner is celebrating a birthday today. He is an enthusiastic endorser of the Eckhartz Press book Transatlantic Passage by Paul M. Banks. Here's what he says about the book...

“You’ll love reading about what it’s like to be a soccer (always going to be football to me!) fan from multiple perspectives. Thanks to Paul and this in depth look at the evolution of international soccer in the United States, in some ways negative for the men’s game, and in some ways positive for the women’s game.”