Former Telegraph sports editor John Nogowski will be in Nashua for a book signing on Saturday for his latest book, "Diamond Duels" at Banes & Noble. (Courtesy photo)

NASHUA – Did you know that Stan Musial has 356 lifetime at bats vs. Warren Spahn? Or that Whitey Ford had 73 lifetime starts against the Chicago White Sox, but just 42 against the archrival Red Sox.

“Never knew that,” said John Nogowski, former Telegraph Sports Editor for a seven year span in the late 1970s and early 1980s. “And I’ve read hundreds of baseball books, even had my baseball writer’s card one year. So I thought there was a book there – and there was.”

That book, Nogowski’s eighth, is called “Diamond Duels”, featuring the best pitcher-hitter battles in baseball history. He’ll be on hand Saturday from 11 a.m.to 1 p.m. for a book signing at Barnes & Noble in South Nashua.

Nogowski’s son John indirectly led to the book. The younger Nogowski played in the Majors in 2020-21 with the Cardinals and Pirates, and then played in the Dominican a couple of years ago. The team’s pitching coach was Phil Regan, and Nogowski’s son was going to play golf with him. Nogowski thought it would be a good idea to look up some stats on Regan’s career, and found a site called “Stathead”.

“It had everything you could think of,” said Nogowski, a Nashua High and Rivier alum who now lives in Tallahasee, Fla.

His favorite Diamond Duel?

“There are so many great matchups, it’s hard to pick one,” he said in an email. “I suppose I’d pick Ted Williams vs. Bob Feller. They’d battled pretty evenly through their careers.”

But Williams, Nogowski added, got the upper hand late, with five homers and a double in his final 13 at-bats vs. Feller to raise his career average vs. him to match his overall career average of .344.

Diamond Duels is the second baseball book Nogowski has written. The other is “Last Time Out”, about the final MLB game of baseball’s greatest players.