Despite being 50 years overdue, a copy of "Baseball's Zaniest Stars" withdrawn from the Warren, Michigan public library will remain in the possession of Chuck Hildebrandt, 63, who borrowed it in 1974 and recently attempted to return it. The library does not want it back.
"When you're moving with a bunch of books, you're not examining every book. You throw them in a box and go," said Hildebrandt, who has lived in many cities. "But five or six years ago, I was going through the bookshelf and there was a Dewey decimal library number on the book. What is this?" … He figured the library might want to publicize the long overdue exchange. He said he recently met library director Oksana Urban, who listened to his pitch. Hildebrandt said he hasn't heard anything since then, though Urban told the Detroit Free Press that all is forgiven.
"Some people never come back to face the music," Urban said. "But there was really no music to face because he and the book were erased from our system."
I like that Urban thought it salient to make clear that Hildebrant was also erased. But with the fine being $4,564, maybe just take the money.
The book's author, Howard Liss, died in 1995; he was prolific enough to have earned a couple of inches in the New York Times.
