Baseball Fiction

As any true sports fan will tell you, once you have an allegiance to a team it's set in stone. It's unwavering. It's finite. You never leave. Yet somehow, I've been asked to do just that. To set aside my love for The Yankees and take ownership of The New York Lions—the worst team in Major League Baseball. Oh, yes, and turn them into winners. An impossible job I don't want, from a gift I couldn't get a refund on.

In The Ancient Wisdom of Baseball, author Christian Sheppard interweaves Homer’s epics with glorious stories from the green fields of America’s pastime, celebrating Achilles’ courage and Odysseus’ cunning along with the virtues of Hall of Fame players such as Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth and of great teams such as the 2004 Red Sox and the 2016 Cubs. Along the way, Sheppard humorously recollects trying to raise his baby daughter true to the teachings of ancient myth and his beloved game.

Dean Evers, an elderly widower, sits in front of the television with nothing better to do than waste his leftover evenings watching baseball. It’s Rays/Mariners, and David Price is breezing through the line-up. Suddenly, in a seat a few rows up beyond the batter, Evers sees the face of someone from decades past, someone who shouldn’t be at the ballgame, shouldn’t be on the planet. And so begins a parade of people from Evers’s past, all of them occupying that seat behind home plate. Until one day Dean Evers sees someone even eerier….

From their first encounter, figure skater Paisley Harris knows she should stay away from famous snowboarder Knox Winterbottom. But that's easier said than done. The chemistry between them is palpable, but both have secrets that could destroy their dreams in this sexy, sporty, emotionally fraught...

Ryder Huntington was my first and only broken heart. I promised no one would tear me up like his sweet words and broken promises ever again. I didn't expect the first time I landed a high-paying interior design job for an MLB player would be the day we met again. And I certainly didn't expect Ryder would bring with him cops, handcuffs, and words like "breaking and entering." Now he wants to make up for the misunderstanding. Well, that ship has sailed, I think.

Ihre Musik hat Lacey Logan zum Star gemacht, und jetzt, wo sie im Rampenlicht steht, tut sie alles, um ihre Privatsphäre zu schützen. Nachdem sie herausfinden musste, dass ihr Freund sie hintergangen hat, beginnt allerdings nicht nur Laceys sorgfältig aufgebaute Fassade zu bröckeln, sondern sie ist auch von heute auf morgen wieder Single. Dann begegnet sie Jimmy – Baseballspieler, wahnsinnig sexy und überhaupt nicht ihr Typ. Trotzdem fliegen heftig die Funken.

Jalen DeLuca's unique ability to predict pitches helped him save the career of Yankees star Second Baseman James “JY” Yager, but with JY sidelined with an injury, Jalen’s focusing on his own on-field efforts. However, the media is still interested in the “Calamari Kid”, and Jalen begins to get a little full of himself. Now, Daniel and Cat are starting to feel left out and kind of angry. Maybe all this baseball genius stuff isn’t as great as it’s cracked up to be.

A spiteful article about the former pitcher and current playboy, Reid Buchanan, questions his talent in the bedroom. And the newspaper's just the first bad news. Reid's grandmother Gloria's broken hip means she needs constant care, but Reid hired Nurses 1 and 2 for their bedside manner with him. So for Number 3 he chooses Lori Johnson, the first candidate who seems immune to his brand of charm.

All my friends are under the impression I'm only at Newhouse to chase women and play baseball. Those are two of my favorite pastimes. The truth is Newhouse is my chance to save my family's farm. If I don't get drafted, we'll lose everything we've been working hard to keep. Then I hear her sing, and she's all I can think about. It's messing up my game and putting my future in jeopardy. I need to get her out of my system, but this girl is playing hard to get.

As a kid, Jackie Robinson loved sports. And why not? He was a natural at football, basketball, and, of course, baseball. But beyond athletic skill, it was his strength of character that secured his place in sports history. In 1947 Jackie joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the long-time color barrier in major league baseball. It was tough being first - not only did "fans" send hate mail but some of his own teammates refused to accept him.

Photographer Maggie Redford is happy to watch life from the stands. She's already met and lost the love of her life and would rather spend her time snapping shots of Chicago's MLB team. But Maggie's thrown a curveball when the team signs Tommy Mikals, a tattooed hotshot whose talent for making plays is matched by a playboy reputation. Tommy knows he's on the brink of losing his baseball career for good and that the Cougars are his last shot at redemption. Vowing to give up his party-boy ways, he can't afford any distractions - including one gorgeous team photographer.

When Christine, an idealistic young American teacher, meets and marries Hideki Yamada, an aspiring Japanese high school baseball coach, she believes that their love with be enough to sustain them as they deal with cultural differences. However, Hideki's duties, and the team of fit, obedient boys whom he begins to think of as a surrogate family, take up more and more of his time, just as Christine is struggling to manage the needs of their multiply-disabled daughter and their sensitive son. Things come to a head when their son is the victim of bullies.

When a family emergency reminds us all how short life can be, Alexis's father moves up the wedding date. She's forced to wrestle with her father's emotional manipulation as we fall harder and harder for one another and her wedding day moves closer. We're keeping a huge secret from her father and her rabid fan base, and we both feel the walls closing in on us. And then my father shows up out of nowhere. He's set on ruining my life the way he says I ruined his, and he has the evidence to do it.

The Baseball Code is a story about the love of the game; about the smell of a well-oiled glove; about the feel of the handle of the bat as you turn it in your hands; about running across an expanse of green grass on a hot summer afternoon, gazing up at the spinning red seams of a white baseball as it cuts its arc against a bright blue sky, timing your stride and the reach of your arm so perfectly that the ball drops into your mitt like a plum ripe from a tree.

Everyone knows Marcus Stroman as a baseball player. He loves the sport, and yes, he probably has a shot at the pros. But “baseball player” doesn’t totally define him. Why won’t anyone also see him as a basketball player or a musician? While he loves being known for what he does well, he’s struggling because people are trying to limit him to just one thing. Literally how high up a mountain does Marcus need to climb to be completely free of what everyone else sees? How can he protect himself from the online zings, the chatter, and the opinions?

It feels as if it's going to be a long season for Arthur as he struggles to sharpen his baseball skills. But before it's all over, he learns an important lesson about teamwork.

It’s one hell of a sledgehammer to the chest when your baseball career comes to an end. It’s like you finally realize that baseball never loved you back. All the sleepless nights, the hours spent at the gym trying to stay fit, the conditioning, the training, the mental preparation, the holidays missed, the birthdays passed, the memories you didn’t get to make with your family … all for what? It’s not like baseball lost any sleep over you. She didn’t stay awake for nights on end, trying to figure out how to make you a better player. She didn’t care. Baseball’s a business.

Twelve-year-old Michael Arroyo lives in the shadows of Yankee Stadium, home of his heroes, but a place that might as well be on a different continent since he can't afford to see the inside. He also lives in the shadows of his Bronx neighborhood, hiding from the bill collectors and the officials who would separate him from his 17-year-old brother if they knew the two boys were living on their own. Baseball is Michael's only salvation.

Stephen Satlow is an eight-year-old boy living in Brooklyn, New York, which means he only cares about one thing - the Dodgers. Steve and his father spend hours reading the sports pages and listening to games on the radio. Aside from an occasional run-in with his teacher, life is pretty simple for Steve. But then Steve hears a rumor that an African-American family is moving to his all-Jewish neighborhood. It's 1948 and some of his neighbors are against it. Steve knows this is wrong. His hero, Jackie Robinson, broke the color barrier in baseball the year before.

This entertaining history blends anecdote, incident, and analysis as it chronicles the story of our national pastime. Alexander covers the advent of the first professional baseball leagues, the game’s surge in the early 20th century, the Golden 20s and the Gray 30s, the breaking of the color line in the late 40s, and the game’s expansion to its current status as a premier team sport. He describes changing playing styles and outstanding teams and personalities, but also demonstrates the many connections to society.