Memo To Mr. Torre: So You're Writing A Book

Joe, writing a book is like playing the Angels. You got to get to them early.

The first sentence is key. It's a writer's out-pitch. If you can get it by them that'll be huge.

Here are some opening lines that worked for writers who knew how to win. With a little tweaking, just to find your own comfort zone, you could plug any of them into The Joe Torre Story (please call it that).

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.

As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream.

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

In the great green room, there was a telephone and a red balloon.

I am Myra Breckinridge whom no man will ever possess.

You better not never tell nobody but God.

It was a dark and stormy night.

It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

It was a pleasure to burn.