​       Samuel Barrett was born in Northport, Alabama, on November 3, 2000, later spending time in Decatur before settling in Phenix City in 2005—the very year the Houston Astros captured their first pennant. Athletics quickly became a defining part of his life. During his senior year at Central High School in 2018–2019, he not only took the field for the baseball team but also worked behind the camera for the school’s state championship football program. Afterward, he pursued his studies at Chattahoochee Valley Community College, where he completed an Associate’s Degree in 2023.

 

His calling within the game deepened when he enrolled at the Wendelstedt Umpire School in 2021 and returned in 2022. Known as the premier professional umpire school in the world, Wendelstedt provided the rigor and training that earned him a placement in a collegiate summer league and opened the door to high-school assignments across Alabama. These early years behind the plate gave Barrett not only a career, but also the raw material for his writing. What began as a personal blog chronicling the trials of his first season eventually took shape as his debut book, Umpire Diary: My Personal Journey and Experiences Beginning an Umpire Career, published in July 2024.

 

With an instinct for both storytelling and research, Barrett has continued to turn his lifelong passion for baseball into narrative. His second book, Orange Crush: The Neglected 1971 Houston Astros, emerged from a personal research project that drew on his fascination with the game’s forgotten corners. In it, he resurrects one of Houston’s most overlooked seasons, tracing the drama of a team that helped shape the franchise’s identity.

 

Today, Barrett writes from the vantage point of player, umpire, and historian, weaving experience with scholarship. His work invites readers to see baseball as a sport and as a living record filled with overlooked stories, hard-earned lessons, and the ever-present rhythm of America’s favorite pastime.