BOB WILBER

the transporter . He set it down and he said , ‘ Bob , what you got here is a book !’

That was when I realized someday , I am going to do this . I ’ m going to write it all down , starting at three years old when I was aware of life around me , right up until the day I quit typing . I ’ m kind of glad I waited . I did 20 years in the PR business . That was a nice , round number after the end of the 2015 season . I was tired of the travel and I wanted to do ( write the book ). Fortunately , just like you can ’ t pick your parents , I was fortunate to marry the right person . ( Barbara ) had my back on it and she told me to go for it and here we are . We have a book !

There are three phases of your professional life chronicled here — baseball , soccer , and drag racing — and they ’ re pretty different . How were you able to jump into these worlds the way you did ?

The central theme of the book , which I did not know until I started writing – I spotted it as I was writing – was this mentality that I ’ ve always had of plowing forward . Don ’ t stop and overanalyze , don ’ t think it to death . You overthink things , you get paralysis ; paralysis by analysis . All through my life , whatever I was doing — whether I was a kid , in high school , in college , professional life — when I saw something I wanted to do and my gut said ‘ That looks good , let ’ s try that ,’ I just did it . And some of those were failures , but you learn more from the failures than you probably do from the successes . Those are life lessons .

So all through that , I just kind of plowed forward . I had a baseball career that was nothing like my dad ’ s and I wanted to be like my dad , so parts of six years as a player , coach , and scout . Then I was done with that . I was the youngest scout in Major League Baseball and I discovered quickly it was a really good job for 65-year-old exballplayers because to me , it was just incredibly boring . You can only watch so much bad baseball . By yourself . On the road . So I was always good at making connections and maintaining relationships , so I called in some favors .

One was my oldest brother , Del Jr ., and I said ‘ What do I do now ? What do I do when I grow up ?’ He pointed me in the direction of Converse shoes and I went to work for them . And then I fell in love with indoor soccer and was just a huge fan of the sport . As it turns out , after Converse , I went to work for my brother in Washington DC and we did some marketing work for the Three Musketeers brand and M & M / Mars and we put a sponsorship deal together for them with the Major Indoor Soccer League . Here ’ s the connection you don ’ t know yet , because you haven ’ t read the book . Bill Kempling , the commissioner of the Major Indoor Soccer League , just a few years later became the president of Heartland Park ( Topeka ) and he brought me there to be the general manager .

So without Bill Kempling , I never get into racing . It never would ’ ve happened .

Did not realize you were a track GM ! How did that go ?

I spent one year at Heartland Park . I loved it ,

and we did a really good job , but all my life I ’ ve been a team player — and I mean that literally , I ’ ve been on teams , and we win and lose together — and I realized pretty quickly at the race track that it was very fun and exciting . It was hard work , endless hours , but at the end of the day , you didn ’ t win or lose , you just hoped it didn ’ t rain . You know ? And that we sold a lot of tickets . That was winning or losing . Of all the types of racing we had at Heartland Park , I loved NHRA the most . It totally clicked with me and I knew during that year at Heartland Park , it started to seep into my brain , that I wanted to work for a team .

I had to start at the bottom . I went broke a couple times and went into indoor soccer a couple times and ended up in 1996 having a relationship with Whit Bazemore because I had done some contract work with him because we were both at the racetrack . When he got his first big deal , the Smokin ’ Joes deal , he ’ d never had a big sponsor like that , he called me and asked me to be his PR guy . That was 22 years ago . So that ’ s how it all happened .

How does someone get those kinds of chances in their career ? That ’ s pretty incredible .

When people ask me how it happened , I tell

them , you can ’ t force opportunities . You can ’ t make them up out of thin air . But it behooves you , if you want to go do some exciting stuff , to always be in the way of the opportunity train when it ’ s coming down the track . Just be in the way ! Sometimes , it ’ ll pass you by and sometimes , you can jump on .

I went through some really crazy stuff . I joined the Indianapolis Twisters ’ indoor soccer team about halfway through their first season because they were hemorrhaging money . And I was supposed to be the white knight to ride in there and save the day . I was the general manager , and not much more than a month later , we held a press conference in my office to make a huge announcement . Instead , the owner walked in and immediately said , ‘ I ’ m folding the franchise immediately , I ’ m out of money .’

That ’ s one of those experiences where you learn a lesson , but had I not done that , had I not gotten that experience , the next domino might not have fallen .

They all got me here , and there were ups and downs and twists and turns , but I wouldn ’ t change any of it , even the mistakes . DI

“ Bats , Balls , and Burnouts ” can be purchased at Amazon . com or at NHRA events at the Stupid Fast merchandise trailer .

PHOTOS : MARK J . REBILAS , WILBER FAMILY ARCHIVES