Jerry Spinelli won the Newbery Medal for Maniac Magee, the sixth of his more than fifteen acclaimed books for young readers. Growing up, he wanted to be a shortstop in the majors long before it occurred to him to be a writer. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved PennRelays of his home state of Pennsylvania in a book. And, of course, to show the world a little bit about athletes and what makes some of them tick.