Ramsey's Teen Author To Be Featured At Local Book Signing

18-year-old Ramsey resident Matthew already has quite a few writing credentials under his belt: he authored the published book Bonded at the Seams: Baseball in Our Lives, which was released in June, has co-authored another book released this year, has another book coming out next year, is currently writing his fourth book and is a writer at NJ Baseball Magazine. And, he did all of that in between taking his SATs during his junior year of high school and beginning classes as a freshman at William Paterson University this fall.

This Thursday, Orso will be one of the authors featured at a Barnes and Noble ‘New Writers Night’ in West Nyack.

The teen writer said he plans to chat about his two loves – writing and baseball.

“My grandfather was a war veteran, a Purple Heart, and the former chief of the Fort Lee police department,” Orso said. “He taught me everything I know about baseball, and about loving the Yankees.”

Though he loves playing the game, Orso said that was never what he wanted to end up doing. “I was always the slowest kid on the field. But, I still play because I love it. And, I learned everything I could about the game. I am to the point now where I can just ramble baseball history off the top of my head,” he said.

By combining that skill with his other love, writing, Orso was able to create something unique.

“I finished [Bonded at the Seams] when I was 16. I told my parents I was going to find a publisher for it,” he said. “They said ‘sure,’ but I think they thought I was crazy. I just emailed it out to some publishers, and [Tate Publishing] answered me that they were interested.”

The manuscript was accepted just after Orso had taken his SATs. “It came at a great time,” he said. “I was at the point where I was asking myself, ‘OK, what am I going to do with my life? What do I want to go into?’ This really jumpstarted my writing career.”

Bonded at the Seams is a different sort of baseball book, as Orso explains it. “Most people read a baseball book for the baseball. This tells a story within a story; it’s about what’s good about living in America.” A Babe Ruth vignette in the book is really, he explained, about World War II.

Orso’s career goal is to “replace Michael Kay on the YES network. I’d love to be a sports journalist, analyst or talk show host.” He has started studying journalism at WPU. Orso also hosts sports talk shows on online radio outlets and spends his spare time inventing new statistics by which baseball players can be measured.

No matter where his professional career takes him, writing will always be a part of it, he said.

Meet Orso and chat with him about Bonded at the Seams this Thursday, Sept. 27, at the Barnes and Noble in the Palisades Center in West Nyack. ‘New Writers Night’ features 10 authors or published books at starts at 7 p.m.

--

Follow Patch on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your email inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.