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Adam Henig

Author | Speaker

Baseball's Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore

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“Ron LeFlore’s fantastic journey deserves a fantastic biography, and Adam Henig delivers here with resounding success. He captures one of the most unlikely of all baseball careers-the drama on and off the field-with impressive research and splendid writing. Unforgettable.” ―Jonathan Eig, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for King: A Life and author of Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig

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“Ron LeFlore’s journey from prison to MLB All-Star is the greatest underdog story in the history of American sports, and Adam Henig covers all its angles with extraordinary research, access, and passion. Baseball’s Outcast is a must-read tale of Americana, hustle, inspiration, and tragedy in 1970s baseball.” ―John W. Miller, author of New York Times bestseller The Last Manager

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“Adam Henig has a penchant for rescuing Black men from obscurity, restoring their credibility, and offering a broader tapestry of their lives and achievements. With the same literary tools and insight that he utilized in his book on Frank Wills, the security guard who foiled the Watergate break-in, he applies in the trials and tribulations of Ron LeFlore, giving us a better perspective and understanding of his feats on the diamond-and elsewhere.” ― Herb Boyd, author of Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination

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“Ron LeFlore is one of the most memorable characters ever to play major league baseball. He came from prison, where he first learned to play, and amazingly he became a star for the Detroit Tigers. Adam Henig has written a truly wonderful book about him. His research is impeccable and impressive, and on almost every page I learned something interesting. I loved it.” ― Peter Golenbock, author of The Bronx Zoo and The Forever Boys

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“Thankfully, Adam Henig has provided a compelling in-depth look at the fall, rise, and fall of ex-convict and All-Star Ron LeFlore, one of the most remarkable stories in baseball history.” ― Bill Dow, Detroit Free Press and Detroit Sports History Blog freelance writer

Read an excerpt from the Detroit Metro Times.
 
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Watergate's Forgotten Hero

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“This is a powerful, tragic biography…[and] a remarkably well-researched and definitive account of an unheralded American hero.” – Kirkus

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“It takes generosity of spirit, and often the talents of a fine detective, to find poetry in the life of a common man. Adam Henig has those qualities, and the tale he tells of the life of Frank Wills is both tragic, and illuminating, in his capable hands.”   -John A. Farrell, Richard Nixon: The Life

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“Absorbing…compelling biography.” —Herb Boyd, Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self Determination and Baldwin’s Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin

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“[Henig] reveals some surprising details about a man who found himself in the middle of a crime that shook America’s political foundation to its core.”  —Joseph Rodota, The Watergate: Inside America’s Most Infamous Address

 

Click here to read an excerpt.

Baseball Under Siege: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and a Doctor's Battle to Integrate Spring Training

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“A must-read.”– Mike Vacarro, New York Post

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“There should be a life-size statue of Dr. Ralph Wimbish on the streets of St. Petersburg. Dr. Wimbish was to this city what Dr. Martin Luther King was to the country. Adam Henig’s terrific new book, Baseball Under Siege, beautifully tells the whole inspirational story.” – Peter Golenbock, author of The Bronx Zoo: The Astonishing Inside Story of the 1978 World Champion New York Yankees and Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers

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“This book will need to be on every baseball historian’s shelf, but also every civil rights historian’s shelf and is a must-read for those who cherish Florida history.” – Jon Wilson, Tampa Bay Times and author of The Golden Era in St. Petersburg: Postwar Prosperity in The Sunshine City

Alex Haley's Roots: An Author's Odyssey

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“Henig recounts the highs and lows of Haley’s life with sympathy, addressing the critiques honestly.” Publishers Weekly’s Booklife

Adam Henig

Adam Henig

Adam Henig is the author of Baseball’s Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026) and Watergate’s Forgotten Hero: Frank Wills, Night Watchman (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2021). He’s also the author of Alex Haley’s Roots: An Author’s Odyssey (2014) and Baseball Under Siege: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and a Doctor’s Battle to Integrate Spring Training (2016).

Adam has been featured on Detroit Public Radio, Michigan Public Radio, WTOP (Washington, DC), Good Seats Available, New Books Network, Baseball by the Book, and was interviewed in the award-winning television documentary, “Baseball From the Beginning in Tampa Bay: Breaking Barriers” (2016). In June 2022, Adam spoke at “The Watergate Break-in: 50 Years Later” conference, along with a dozen other subject-matter experts and witnesses present during the scandal. 

An active member of the Biographers International Group and Society of American Baseball Research, Adam has spoken at various events and venues including book clubs, bookstores, community centers, libraries, and senior centers.  His writings have appeared in the following publications:

Adam's writings appeared in these publications.

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