Before they were millionaires, baseball stars worked in offseason

But the strangest offseason of all belonged to Bill Melton. Alone among his colleagues in major-league baseball, the White Sox third baseman spent the winter

Steve Rushin | Nov 13, 2013

Before they were millionaires, baseball stars worked in offseason /

Even when he was at the height of his stardom with the St. Louis Cardinals in the late '60s and early '70s, Lou Brock owned and operated a flower shop in the offseason. — Even when he was at the height of his stardom with the St. Louis Cardinals in the late '60s and early '70s, Lou Brock owned and operated a flower shop in the offseason :: Heinz Kleutmeier/SI

But the strangest offseason of all belonged to Bill Melton. Alone among his colleagues in major-league baseball, the White Sox third baseman spent the winter in a novel pastime for a professional athlete. As the back of his card noted, with an air of wonder: "Bill exercises to get himself into condition."

Published Nov 13, 2013

STEVE RUSHIN

Special Contributor, Sports Illustrated Steve Rushin was born in Elmhurst, Ill. on September 22, 1966 and raised in Bloomington, Minn. After graduating from Bloomington Kennedy High School in 1984 and Marquette University in 1988, Rushin joined the staff of Sports Illustrated. He is a Special Contributor to the magazine, for which he writes columns and features. In 25 years at SI, he has filed stories from Greenland, India, Indonesia, Antarctica, the Arctic Circle and other farflung locales, as well as the usual locales to which sportswriters are routinely posted. His first novel, The Pint Man, was published by Doubleday in 2010. The Los Angeles Times called the book "Engaging, clever and often wipe-your-eyes funny." His next book, a work of nonfiction, The 34-Ton Bat, will be published by Little, Brown in 2013. Rushin gave the commencement address at Marquette in 2007 and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters for "his unique gift of documenting the human condition through his writing." In 2006 he was named the National Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. A collection of his sports and travel writing—The Caddie Was a Reindeer—was published by Grove Atlantic in 2005 and was a semifinalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. The Denver Post suggested, "If you don't end up dropping The Caddie Was a Reindeerduring fits of uncontrollable merriment, it is likely you need immediate medical attention." A four-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, Rushin has had his work anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing, The Best American Travel Writing and The Best American Magazine Writing collections. His essays have appeared in Time magazine andThe New York Times. He also writes a weekly column for SI.com. His first book, Road Swing, published in 1998, was named one of the "Best Books of the Year" by Publishers Weekly and one of the "Top 100 Sports Books of All Time" by SI. He and his wife, Rebecca Lobo, have four children and live in Connecticut.