Non-Fiction

What my son with Down syndrome taught me about baseball—and life

Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct 2022

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — We’re at Tropicana Field, my son and I, watching as Anthony Santander strikes out swinging to end the top of the fourth inning. He’s the 12th Oriole in a row to make an out. Drew Rasmussen is, at the moment, throwing a perfect game for the Tampa Bay Rays. It’s early, but another inning or two like this and things will be very interesting, indeed.

My son, Rich, has been my companion at a hundred or more of these Sunday matinee baseball games in the Trop over the years. He’s 53 years old. He’s a baseball fan. He has Down syndrome.

Media Matters

This innovative ebook is in production from Kendall Hunt and should be available for Fall 2017. It’s an introductory textbook for students interested in mass communications and for instructors interested in teaching students the history, current structure, and possible futures for the mass media. The book has chapters on books, newspapers and magazines, television, film, social media, libel law and ethics, media effects, journalism, public relations, advertising and more. A website for the book offers live links to updates and samples of content from television and film clips to sound bites to historic books in digital form and much more. The textbook’s goal is to inform the students and help them become media-literate, critical consumers of the media.

Modern Media Writing

Modern Media Writing, co-authored with Dr. Randy Miller, a colleague of Rick’s at the University of South Florida, is a college textbook for beginning media writers in Mass Communications and Journalism departments. The authors are at work on a new edition of the popular textbook.

Future Media

Rick Wilber, ed.

One of Rick’s latest books is an anthology he has edited for Tachyon Publishing. The anthology gave Rick a chance to combine his two major writing and teaching interests: science fiction and the mass media.

My Father’s Game

Life, Death, Baseball

During his long baseball career, Del Wilber caught for the Red Sox, Cardinals and Phillies; managed 6 minor league teams; scouted for 4 major league clubs; and served as third base coach for the Senators. Written by his son, Rick, this elegant biographical memoir recounts Del Wilber’s life from the unique perspective of a son who grew up in major league dugouts, experienced the joys and hardships that go along with having a big-league dad, and served as his father’s family caregiver as he became terminally ill.

Magazine Feature Writing

Magazine Feature Writing has been a standard college textbook for students interested in writing for magazines since it first came out in 1994. The book is currently out of print and Rick hopes to write a new edition sometime soon. The book is available through Amazon and other online booksellers.

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