Stonington - Former Police Chief Carl Johnson, who now lives in Maine, will be in Stonington and Westerly this weekend signing copies of his new book "From Beer to Beards: Boston Baseball's 2011 to 2013 Roller Coaster Ride."

Although Johnson is a lifelong Yankees fan, he found he was writing more and more about the Red Sox as he began writing a baseball column for two local newspapers after moving to Sanford, Maine, in 2010. His column titled "Baseball World" now appears on Sunday in the Biddeford Journal Tribune. It can be read at baseballworldbjt.com and is subtitled "A fan's perspective on Major League Baseball."

"As a result of working in the heart of Red Sox country, I wrote a lot about the Red Sox," he said Wednesday as he explained what led to the book. "They didn't want to hear about the Yankees up here."

Many of his columns came during the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons, when the Red Sox lost 18 of their last 24 games and missed the playoffs on the last day of the season, finished last the next year and then won the World Series.

"They went from first to worst to first," said Johnson, who worked for 25 years in the police department, 12 of those as chief, before retiring in 1988.

The team's ups and downs intrigued Johnson, whose book chronicles each of the games played over those three years, as well as off-field news such as trades and the controversies involving the team's embattled 2012 manager, Bobby Valentine.

The latter prompted Johnson to divide the book into three sections: the (Terry) Francona era, the Valentine "error" and the (John) Farrell era. Some of the columns Johnson wrote at the time are placed between chapters.

The $17.95 book was published three weeks ago by Indy Publishing and is available on Amazon.

Johnson also plans a book signing on March 30 in Fort Myers, Fla., the Red Sox spring training home. He and his wife make a yearly pilgrimage to spring training, alternating between Florida and Arizona. While at spring training, he writes his daily column.

Johnson will sign books at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Westerly Library and 1 p.m. at the Westerly Elks Lodge. At 3 p.m. on Sunday he will sign books at the Stonington Free Library.

He also will be interviewed at 9 a.m. Saturday on WBLQ-1230 AM radio in Westerly.

j.wojtas@theday.com

Twitter: @joewojtas