About Me

Kevin Cowherd is the New York Times best-selling author of “Hothead” and five other baseball novels for young readers written with Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. Cowherd's debut novel for adults, "The Gym," was published by Apprentice House Press in November 2023. Darkly-comic, it's the story of a down-on-his luck newspaperman reeling from a nasty divorce who joins a gym and befriends an incredibly-fit octogenarian who harbors a dark secret: 30 years earlier, he committed a horrific crime that earned his national notoriety, a long stretch in the slammer and the singular nickname Oven Mitts.

Cowherd has also written six books of non-fiction. The latest is “Bleeding Blue: Four Decades Policing the Violent City of Baltimore,” published by Apprentice House Press in 2022. It’s the memoir of Gary McLhinney, a long-time street cop and president of the police officersunion, that offers an unvarnished look at the challenges of law enforcement in Charm City, as well as new thoughts on the anti-police mood so pervasive in this country and how the criminal justice system often fails to stand up for the victims of violent crimes.

Another of Cowherd’s works of non-fiction, “When the Crowd Didn’t Roar: How Baseball’s Strangest Game Ever Gave a Broken City Hope” (University of Nebraska Press) was featured as one of the best new sports books in the 2019 New York Times Summer Reading Issue.

It’s the first comprehensive account of the 2015 contest between the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox at locked-down Camden Yards – the only one in major league history played without fans – as well as the tragic Freddie Gray riots that led up to it and the therapeutic effect the game had on a reeling city.

Cowherd was an award-winning sports columnist and features writer for The Baltimore Sun for 32 years. He has also written for Men’s Health, Parenting and Baseball Digest magazines, and is the author of a collection of newspaper columns, “Last Call at the 7-Eleven,” published by Bancroft Press.