Thanks for the invite, Eric. Great plaque as well. Went to Babe Ruth's birthplace once, and I was disappointed, as I was hoping it would be a mock-up of the house he lived in, but it was in fact a museum in the shell of the house he was born in. Went back to the bar instead.

My mother visits St Louis regularly; she has really taken to the place. We both watch baseball, and she regularly goes to St Louis to watch the Cardinals. I'm more of a Red Sox fan, and spent a few years travelling over there to watch them at the end of the 90's and early zeroes, in the days of Mo Vaughn and Pedro Martinez. Even Saw Clemens pitch for the Red Sox once, in 1995. You could buy tickets for Fenway then, even along the first baseline, but not anymore it would seem.

The Red Sox thing came about when I first visited the States in 1993. I ended up with a ticket for the Red Sox and enjoyed the experience (the game was decided by a 2-run homer in the tenth innings, so you can imagine it was pretty exciting), so when I went with a mate a couple of years later, we went to another game. We went every year after that, and saw them on the road a few times, but a growing family brought an end to that in 2002. I'm dying to go back though.
Went to Cooperstown twice, in 1995 and 1997. Lovely town. Got drunk in the Bold Dragoon, just round the corner from the Hall of Fame, and learned that throwing a fast ball is skill as well as power: managed 37mph, which I think is about the level of an eight-year old.
That's the source of my complaint about crime conventions being outside of summer: I want to watch baseball but tell the taxman that it was a literary trip and write it off to tax.
I thought 2004 took some of the appeal away from the Red Sox. I think it was the fact that they always blew it that made me like them, and to see them as winners isn't quite the same. Not sure I would hear the same view in Beantown.

The US rights are still up for grabs. There is some interest, but my agent is waiting for the second book, due out in May, to generate more. Good luck with your book. It can seem like a long road, but worth it in the end if things work out.