UPDATED – Winstead’s Talmage Boston Orchestrates ‘Supreme’ Baseball Panel

© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.

By Brooks Igo
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook

*Note: This article was first published on May 29. You can watch the “Let’s Talk Baseball” program, thanks to C-SPAN’s coverage.

UPDATE (June 4) – Winstead shareholder, author and baseball enthusiast Talmage Boston organized a supremely entertaining and one-of-a-kind discussion of America’s favorite pastime.

Last Friday, Boston moderated a panel at a luncheon at the University Club in Washington, D.C. headlined by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The program, sponsored by the Great Washington Writers Series, also featured New York Times columnist David Brooks, ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian, Washington Post columnist George Will and USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan. C-SPAN televised the discussion.

The genesis of the program goes back to when Boston helped secure Alito as the keynote speaker at the 2013 State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting. As part of the deal, Boston, who is friends with Texas Rangers Senior Vice President Jim Sundberg, arranged for Alito to meet the Rangers players and coaches and to have the opportunity to throw out the first pitch before their game against the Oakland Athletics the night before the annual meeting began.

At the end of their evening at the ballpark, Boston says Alito mentioned he would like to show the Dallas lawyer his collection of baseball mementos he has on display in his Supreme Court chambers. When Boston noticed the Rangers were in D.C. to play the Nationals from May 30 to June 1, he remembered what the justice told him and the idea of the baseball panel was born.

“Alito couldn’t have been more gracious and friendly,” said Boston. “He said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”

Boston, who has written two books on baseball history, says one of the cool things about the program is that it will help people connect with Alito and the other panelists.

“Baseball is the common language of people,” he said. “There are no politics involved.

“[The panelists] are normal people that love baseball like you love baseball.”

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