In this novel, the careers of a golden boy rookie hitter for the Cubs and a hard-hitting Mets pitcher take very different paths. The baseball is thrilling, but it is what happens off the field that makes this story a classic.

"In a small town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth "Evvie" Drake rarely leaves her house. Everyone in town, including her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and she doesn't correct them. In New York, Dean Tenney, former major-league pitcher and Andy's childhood friend, is struggling with a case of the "yips": he can't throw straight anymore, and he can't figure out why. An invitation from Andy to stay in Maine for a few months...

"The lovable, hilarious Ameila Bedelia steps up to the plate, filling in for a sick player on the Grizzlies baseball team. Nobody plays ball like Amelia Bedelia!"--P. [4] of cover

"At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big-league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended."--from publisher's description.

"Annie Sullivan had always envisioned returning to her hometown and starting a life with her childhood best friend, Tyler Townsend. But the Ty pursued a career in professional baseball and committed numerous infidelities--including an affair that ended with a three-year-old son on his doorstep. His betrayal cost her the family and the future they'd once planned. Now Annie is committed to her career as a physical therapist at the Corner Spa, the all-female...

"Noah and his best friend Walt want to become cool, make the baseball team, and win over Sam, the girl Noah has loved for years. When Noah finds old love letters, Walt hatches a plan to woo Sam. But as Noah's love life and Walt's baseball career begin, the letters alter everything"--

Heroes of today and of yesteryear magically materialize as Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella builds a baseball stadium in his cornfield.

On a beautiful October morning in rural Maine, a homicide investigator from the state police pulls into the hard-luck town of Copper Falls. The local junkyard is burning, and the town pariah Lizzie Oullette is dead--with her husband, Dwayne, nowhere to be found. As scandal ripples through the community, Detective Ian Bird's inquiries unexpectedly lead him away from small-town Maine to a swank city townhouse several hours south. Adrienne Richards,...

Eight-year-old Steve Satlow is thrilled when Jackie Robinson moves into his Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1948, although many of his neighbors are not. When Steve actually meets his hero he is even more excited -- and worried that a misunderstanding over a Christmas tree could damage his new friendship.

"Vivy Cohen wants to play baseball. Ever since her hero, Major League star pitcher VJ Capello, taught her how to throw a knuckleball at a family fun day for kids with autism, she's been perfecting her pitch. And now she knows she's ready to play on a real team. When her social skills teacher makes her write a letter to someone she knows, she writes to VJ and tells him everything about how much she wants to pitch, and how her mom says she can't because...