Baseball fans in the Pittsburgh area who don't already know what a Saluki is are about to find out as former SIU baseball player Derek Shelton will be the manager of the Pirates in 2020.

In this edition of Reading Baseball, retired SIU professor and Pittsburgh native Pete Peterson takes a look at how Shelton went from Carbondale to a major league managerial position.

Reading Baseball is a series of essays and commentaries by Richard "Pete" Peterson, co-author, with his son Stephen, of The Slide: Leyland, Bonds and the Star-Crossed Pittsburgh Pirates and the editor of The St. Louis Baseball Reader.