Kettmann, born in 1962 in San Jose, California,[6] 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.
That book, nominated for a Quill Award[12] and featured in the Farrelly brothers film "Fever Pitch,"[13] generated mostly positive reviews, but ESPN writer Rob Neyer was an outspoken critic.
"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."
5 on New York Times best-seller list,[19] and "Letter to a New President,"[20] 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.