KCCI Sports Director Reister realizes dream with first book

KCCI Channel 8 Sports Director Scott Reister had a thought as a kid. What if Little League was life or death?

“If I don’t hit the ball, then everyone around me would die. That was the idea,” Reister said on Wednesday during a book signing event at Maytag Pool. “I had this idea in my head since I was a kid. So maybe 30 years it’s been up there.”

The idea Reister had as a kid became reality recently when his first children’s book, Baseball Spy, was published and released in late April.

Since then, he’s been making appearances around Central Iowa and even made it back to his home state of Texas.

At Maytag Pool on Wednesday, Reister spoke with children on swim breaks, handed out candy and popsicles and sold a few books.

“The book is for all ages, but you may have a harder time if you are under 10,” Reister said. “There’s a very strong girl character in it, too.”

The process of building the book from the very beginning started at the end of 2017. That’s when Reister decided to figure out how to do it. He started reading books on story structure and listening to other authors talk about their craft.

It took about two years from figuring out how to do it to the outline. Reister didn’t want to self-publish so he played the long game and was prepared for it to take 10 years if necessary.

Four or five agents eventually requested a manuscript. And one of them signed Reister right before COVID in 2020. At the end of 2022, he inked a three-book deal with Young Dragons Press.

Football Spy and Basketball Spy are the next books in the series. Baseball Spy ranked as a top new release in its category on Amazon in April.

“It’s been a wild dream come true,” Reister said. “It was a wild idea I had as a kid. Putting in the work and being patient, it paid off.

“My kids saw me staying up late in their rooms and working on it, not knowing if it would lead to anything. But when that first box of books got delivered and we got to open the box as a family six years later, it was such a joyous time. Everyone was screaming.”

Baseball Spy is about 240 pages and Reister designed it so that every chapter is super short and ends on a cliffhanger.

“I have had some kids tell me they’ve read it in one day,” Reister said. “And another one told me they stayed in from recess to read it.

“I have heard from girls who tell me how inspirational the girl character is. Those are some good endorsements.”

The main character in Baseball Spy is Zane. He finds out someone on his little league baseball team is a deadly cyber spy. Zane has to figure out who the spy is. The stakes keep getting raised and the major twist happens about 2/3 of the way into the book.

Reister has made appearances at both Barnes and Noble in West Des Moines and at a few little leagues in Central Iowa. He’s also visited two schools and Beaverdale Books.

His most memorable appearance though might have been his trip back home to Dallas, Texas, where he grew up. He had a book signing at a Barnes and Noble there, too.

“It’s located right next to the little league field I played on,” Reister said. “My old little league coach and some teammates came to the signing. I hadn’t seen those guys in 30 years. We brought 60 copies of the book that day and sold 50 of them. The numbers have been great so far.”

Baseball Spy can be found on Amazon.com and in all Barnes and Noble in Iowa.

Former MLB player Casey Blake also read it and wrote something for the back cover.

Football Spy is expected to be released next year. Reister has gotten through a draft of it.

“All three books will feature the same characters,” Reister said. “I’m really happy with the beginning and the end of Football Spy. I have to figure out how to flush out the middle to make it fun and exciting. I know where I’m going with the story for the third one, too.”