Mickey Donovan grew up on the South Side of Chicago dreaming of becoming a star for the White Sox. Donovan's childhood dream came true in 1919 when he made the team. Despite the fact that he spent most of his rookie season on the bench, it was truly a magical year - until the Black Sox scandal turned it into a nightmare. -- Book jacket.
Young Michael Steel loves to watch the New York Yankees on TV—from his hospital bed. Michael has brain cancer. But when Yankee second baseman Robinson Cano visits Michael in the hospital, Michael embarks on an unexpected and wonderful journey when he becomes a Yankee batboy for a day. It's his baseball dream come true! When Michael's illness makes him weak on the field, can he be strong enough to fulfill his batboy duties and make his new teammates proud? With a little help from Yankee greats Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Roger Maris, and Mickey Mantle, Michael Steel earns his nickname "The Boy of Steel" and learns a very important lesson: Never stop fighting! Laura Seeley's vibrant, action-packed illustrations illuminate Ray Negron's touching and triumphant story, and children and parents alike will root for Michael as they learn about baseball, cancer, and a life lesson we all need to know. With a foreword by Kelly Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos, The Boy of Steel will be a hit with your little baseball fan.
James T. Farrell and Baseball is a social history of baseball on Chicago's South Side, drawing on the writings of novelist James T. Farrell along with historical sources. Charles DeMotte shows how baseball in the early decades of the twentieth century developed on all levels and in all areas of Chicago, America's second largest city at the time, and how that growth intertwined with Farrell's development as a fan and a writer who used baseball as one of the major themes of his work. DeMotte goes beyond Farrell's literary focus to tell a larger story about baseball on Chicago's South Side during this time--when Charles Comiskey's White Sox won two World Series and were part of a rich baseball culture that was widely played at the amateur, semipro, and black ball levels. DeMotte highlights the 1919-20 Black Sox fix and scandal, which traumatized not only Farrell and Chicago but also baseball and the broader culture. By tying Farrell's fictional and nonfictional works to Chicago's vibrant baseball history, this book fills an important gap in the history of baseball during the Deadball Era.
This annotated bibliography covers approximately 400 novels published from 1838 through 2007. A substantial introduction to the history and development of the genre precedes the chronologically arranged entries, which provide bibliographic details and extensive annotations on plot, themes, and compositional strengths and weaknesses. Mainstream novels by writers such as Hemingway, Wolfe, Roth, and DeLillo are included. Appendices provide historical overviews for the primary baseball subgenres, including mystery, fantasy, and science-fiction; lists for novels that foreground issues of race or ethnicity (or both, as in Winegardner's Vera Cruz Blues), gender (Gilbert's A League of Their Own), and class (Hay's The Dixie Association); and the author's rankings of great baseball novels overall and by subgenre.
Twin brothers David and Jason Benham grew up with big dreams of baseball and an even bigger trust in God. Though they attended a small high school with no baseball field, turned down a professional offer so they could attend college together, and faced more than one missed pitch and injuries, they kept dreaming, praying together on the field, and believing in God’s provision for their lives. David and Jason’s journey, from Little League to college to professional baseball and beyond, reminds us that even when we don’t know what God is up to, He’s putting together the pieces of our life’s puzzle and executing the plans He has for each of us. Miracle in Shreveport tells the story of a family’s love, the power of prayer, and a game that is truly all-American. It is also the story of brotherhood staying strong, despite the threat of comparison in a profession committed to competition. Most of all, it is the story of being faithful in small steps, honoring God in the process, and trusting His hand in our lives. In this book, the Benhams call us to remember that when we follow God’s dream for us, we find it is better than we could have ever dreamed for ourselves.
A sportswriter and lifelong student of the game, Posnanski that tells the story of baseball through the lives of its greatest players. His choices include iconic Hall of Famers, unfairly forgotten All-Stars, talents of today, and more. Rather than relying on records and statistics, he retraces players' origins, illuminates their characters, and places their accomplishments in the context of baseball's past and present. The result is a rich pageant of baseball history, and stories that have long gone unheard. -- adapted from jacket
The Wizard of Oz meets America's favorite pastime! Alex Metcalf must be dreaming. What else would explain why he's playing baseball for the Oz Cyclones, with Dorothy as his captain, in the Ever After Baseball Tournament? But Alex isn't dreaming; he's just from the real world. And winning the tournament might be his only chance to get back there, because the champions get a wish granted by the Wizard. Too bad Ever After's most notorious criminal, the Big Bad Wolf, is also after the wishes. And anyone who gets in his way gets eaten! From beloved baseball author Alan Gratz comes a novel in which classic literary characters are baseball crazy, and one real-world boy must face his fears and discover the surprising truth about himself.
A memoir of fathers and sons, baseball, a world at war, and second chances. “I loved [it]. You will, too” (Jim Morris, author of The Oldest Rookie). Gene Moore was a small-town Illinois farm boy whose passion for “America’s Pastime” made him a local legend. It wasn’t long before word spread, and the Brooklyn Dodgers came calling on the teenage phenom who could hit a ball a country mile. Headed for stardom, and his dream within reach, Gene’s future in the majors was cut short by World War II. In 1944, after joining the US Navy, Gene found himself on a top-secret mission: guarding German sailors captured from U-505, a submarine carrying one of the infamous Enigma decoders. Stuck with guard duty, he decided to bide the time by doing what he loved. Gene taught the POWs how to play baseball. It was a decision that would change Gene’s life forever. The story of a remarkable man told by his inspired son, “Gene’s journey from promise to despair and back again, set against a long war and an even longer post-war recovery . . . [is] a 20th-century epic that demonstrates how, sometimes, letting go of a dream is the only way to discover one’s great fortune” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Eleven short stories of the Cuban immigrant experience as characters adjust to life in the United Sates, from an award-winning author. From the prize–winning title story—a masterpiece of humor and heartbreak—unfolds a collection of tales that illuminate the landscape of an exiled community rich in heritage, memory, and longing for the past. In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd is at once “tender and sharp-fanged” as Ana Menéndez evocatively charts the territory from Havana to Coral Gables, Florida, and explores whether any of us are capable, or even truly desirous, of outrunning our origins (LA Weekly). “With the grace of Margaret Atwood and the sensuality of Laura Esquivel,” Menéndez makes an unforgettable debut “rich in metaphor, wisdom, and delicious subtlety” (St. Petersburg Times).