About Kris

Kris on the beach at  Galveston, the scene of his Texas League History book, The Galveston Buccaneers: Shearn Moody and the 1934 Texas League Championship.

 In one form or another, Kris Rutherford has been writing professionally for over 25  years. Whether its government reports, a grant proposal, a professional journal article, non-fiction sports history, youth sports fiction, or operating the family              newspaper, Kris completes extensive research into his subjects to offer the reader the accurate information or a motivational story with a clear message.

A native Texan, raised in Texas and Maine, and now splitting time between Texas and  Arkansas, Kris has been researching early Texas League Baseball for a decade and    has been a regular contributor to the Texas League Newsletter on MiLB.com. He has also written three Texas League history books and countless articles posted on his blog, “Me and Jerome.” He has also appeared at numerous conferences and workshops across Texas promoting his interest in the beginnings of baseball in the Lone Star State.

You never know what old ballplayer you might run into in a cemetery.

Kris’ interest in baseball also led him to publish the  middle-grade novel “Batting Ninth” (Enslow Publishers), and he has teamed up with the Future Fisherman Foundation (F3) to publish a series of middle-grade fiction books focusing on the F3 mission to promote sport fishing among America’s youth as an alternative to alcohol, drugs, and other less desirable activities.

He is also a regular contributor to The Trucker Newspaper, for which he writes the twice-monthly column “Rhythm of the Road,” an overview of the history of classic country music as related to the trucking profession and truck drivers.

Kris holds a Bachelor of Science in Recreation Administration from Arkansas Tech University and a Master of Agriculture from Colorado State University. He also earned a graduate certificate in Public Rhetoric and Technical Writing from the University of Arkanasas. He has over 30 years of professional experience in youth sports, outdoor recreation planning, and environmental education administration. Kris is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IPWAA), and the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. He is a Certified Parks and Recreation Professional and currently lives in Maumelle, Arkansas, with his wife, Karen. He and Karen also own, edit, and publish The Roxton Progress, a small-town newspaper in Northeast Texas. In their spare time, they can often be found searching some remote cemetery for a long-forgotten ballplayer or anyone else they find interesting.