Baseball Fiction

From number one New York Times best seller Mike Lupica! Nick Crandall feels like he doesn't belong anywhere. He doesn't fit in with his new foster parents. They don't know the first thing about sports - and he's not exactly the model student they want him to be. It's only a matter of time until they realize he's not the right kid for them. And Nick certainly doesn't belong playing varsity baseball. He's only twelve years old! His teammates want a catcher their own age. But Nick needs to prove that he belongs - to his parents, to his team, and to himself.

Patrick “Patch” Donnelly has what it takes to be the best goalie in the NHL... if only he could learn to control his temper. When Coach orders him to get his head in the game with private yoga classes, Patch isn’t having it. There’s no way this tough Boston guy would be caught dead downward dogging his way to inner peace. But if he refuses, he risks his starting position and the dream he sacrificed everything for, including joining the priesthood.

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.

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….

In his third book on baseball, John Ritter takes the reader to Dillontown where, through a series of events, the fate of the town rests on the outcome of a baseball game. Tom and a newcomer, Cruz, convince a former Major-League Baseball player to coach the team. The team prepares for the big day by using unorthodox training methods. While the team wins the game, it still takes an unusual set of circumstances to save the town.

Candy shop owner Charlotte Caine knows temptation. To reboot her life, shed weight and gain perspective, she’s passing up sweet enticements left and right. But willpower doesn’t come so easily when hell-raiser Spencer Gregory comes back to Hope’s Crossing, bringing with him memories of broken promises and teen angst. A retired pro baseball player on the mend from injury—and a damaging scandal—he’s interested in his own brand of reinvention.

"The Baseball Diet Book is an endearing collection of stories describing the struggles of uncommon moments, both humorous and serious, and brings us closer to the reality of baseball’s goodness, hope, and destiny in our lives. Patrick Ryan is a quintessential baseball storyteller."— James Van Amber, author of Regina’s Record

Ten-year-old Katy Gordon loves baseball, and she's good at it, too. She tries out for the 1958 Little League season in the disguise of a boy, and she gets in easily. But when the coach finds out she's a girl, he forbids her from playing. "Since the beginning of baseball as an organized sport, it has always been the sole province of male athletes, and will remain so", says the Little League director. It's not fair, and Katy, who's also learning about the Civil Rights Movement in school, recognizes this as another societal injustice.

Daphne Brink doesn’t follow baseball, but watching “America’s Snoozefest” certainly beats sitting at home in the days after she signs her divorce papers. After one too many ballpark beers, she heckles Carolina Battery player Chris Kepler, who quickly proves there might actually be a little crying in baseball. Horrified, Daphne reaches out to Chris on social media to apologize . . . but forgets to identify herself as his heckler in her message.

When her father orchestrates an engagement for business purposes, Alexis is forced to say yes publicly. Now I'm the other man in this equation, and despite my reputation as the bad boy of baseball, I learned long ago to stay away from married women. But not everything is as it appears, and she isn't married yet, which forces me to confront my own morals and fears when it comes to relationships. And when she spends time with my family, we both feel how easy life would be together.

Popular novelist Dan Jenkins is well known in the golf world for his column in Golf Digest. A modern classic among 20th-century sports novels, Dead Solid Perfect is Jenkins' hilarious send-up of professional golfers and the often ludicrous reality of life on the tour.

Two things I love: baseball and Lacey Stark. Back in college, I had them both. But after graduation, I made the biggest mistake of my life. I let Lacey go. Five years later, I can't complain. A Cy Young winner, I've achieved what I set out to do - pitching in the Major Leagues. Life is great. Until it's not. And the day it all went south? The day Lacey Stark appeared at my post press conference.

Two exciting Magic Tree House adventures, narrated by author Mary Pope Osborne. A Big Day for Baseball: Batter up! The magic tree house has whisked Jack and Annie back in time to the 1940s. They're in Brooklyn, New York for a very special baseball game. Hurricane Heroes in Texas: Jack and Annie are on a mission! When the magic tree house whisks them back to Galveston, Texas, in 1900, they find out that a big storm is coming.

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.

I'm the coach's daughter, watching from the shadows as my father's best friend and star player wins the World Series for his team. Trick Lowry is almost twice my age and a bonafide celebrity, and I love him with my entire heart. It's the kind of secret, off-limits crush that feeds wild fantasies and reckless ideas—like sneaking into his hotel room while he's celebrating, just to have a little slice of him to myself. I innocently surround myself with his smell, thinking he doesn't have to know.

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.

With four chart-topping albums, Lacey Logan is a superstar whose life no longer feels like her own. Her every move is photographed, videoed, and dissected online, and her carefully curated Instagram feed studied by fans worldwide. To maintain her privacy, Lacey skillfully controls her narrative. But when Lacey discovers her boyfriend is hiding two devastating secrets, she begins to lose confidence and control of her own story. Then big-shouldered baseball player Jimmy Hodges, a former Rookie of the Year when Lacey was in high school, walks into the bar where she’s venting to a friend.

Gretchen Harper has always been practical. Dependable, solid, predictable. She's never taken risks, and she's especially never bought coffee for gorgeous professional athletes in airports. That is, until she meets her favorite baseball player on the worst day of his career. Being sent to the minor league is just the first of Joshua Malvern's many worries—he's got an injury that won't heal and his entire career and future are on the line. When a beautiful woman offers him coffee, that simple kindness is exactly what he needs to lift him out of his funk.

There's nothing eight-year-old twins Zach and Zoe Walker love more than playing sports and solving mysteries. And when those two worlds collide...well, it doesn't get any better than that. So when a baseball signed by Zach's favorite major league player suddenly goes missing - the search is on! Luckily, amateur sleuths Zach and Zoe are on the case.

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.