When asked what he did in the winters after a baseball season ended, Hall of Fame infielder Rogers Hornsby famously replied: “I stare out the window and wait for spring.” For Massachusetts-based author Tommy Shea, the long winter months of 2016 yielded his first book, “Dingers: The 101 Most Memorable Home Runs in Baseball History.”

On July 6, Shea was on hand at the Southport Memorial Library to read from the book and talk about his lifelong connection to baseball, a combination of faith and fandom from an early age.

“When I was younger I either wanted to replace Mickey Mantle in center field or become the first American pope,” said Shea to the roughly 30 attendees who turned out for the hour-plus long event. “Obviously neither of these things happened.”

Co-written with Joshua Shifron, the book provides an entertaining and anecdote-filled look at some of baseball’s biggest moments. The chapters run from the sublime — Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk’s game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, to the absurd — Texas Rangers outfielder Jose Canseco misjudging a routine fly ball that clanged off his forehead and over the left field wall. The blunder lives on through endless Internet memes and for some is the only legacy of Canseco, a superior player in his prime. 

While the book is entirely subjective, Shea said most baseball fans would agree on the majority of his selections including the Bobby Thomson “Shot Heard Round the World” in 1954 and Bill Mazeroski’s 1960 World Series winner against the New York Yankees. Of particular pain to Red Sox fans, a chapter is devoted to light-hitting Yankees infielder Bucky Dent who lifted a lazy pop fly over the Green Monster in Fenway Park during a deciding 1978 playoff game. The home run effectively ended the Red Sox season and Dent would forever have a new middle name in New England which cannot be printed in this newspaper.

The question-and-answer session encouraged lively debate.

“It’s part of what makes baseball great. You could ask 100 fans and get 100 different answers,” he said. “There is an emotional connection.”

Shea was a reporter for the Springfield Republican for 40 years, including six years covering the Boston Red Sox during a memorable period of the team’s history. In sharing his own personal inside baseball experience as a beat writer, Shea recalled how he worried the access would somehow corrupt his love of the game.

“I met great players who were even better people, like Bruce Hurst, Marty Barrett and Rich Gedman,” he said. “It was a dream come true to be paid to cover baseball.” 

In one anecdote, Shea was traveling with the Red Sox in New York City and a player — “who shall remain nameless,” he said — asked him to switch hotel rooms.

“Needless to say the phone kept ringing off the hook from his female fans,” said Shea. “I didn’t answer, I was probably just amazed to have pizza delivered at 2 in the morning.”

The talk was not without controversy; Shea began by telling the crowd he was actually a New York Yankees fan, drawing boo’s and a few Bronx cheers from the partisan Red Sox fans. The Springfield, Massachusetts native said he learned to be tough growing up in enemy territory. 

In additional remarks, he spoke of how baseball creates a common denominator that transcends political, cultural and ethnic lines. 

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican, baseball has its own language fans relate to,” he said. 

The event was organized by volunteer Mary Roach and is part of a new, occasional series the library will offer this summer.