The Pitcher is on Air Force Two on the way to South Korea

So this is the way it happened. I know someone who knows someone who is part of the press corps going with Joe Biden to South Korea. So the someone who knows someone gave the book to the journalist and he is going to give The Pitcher to the VP. Now it is a long flight to South Korea and Joe is probably looking for a little escapism before confronting the North Koreans. What better than a baseball story right?

I imagine old Joe kicking back on Air Force 2 and maybe taking off his shoes and then plop The Pitcher lands in his lap. My guy says something like..."Mr. Vice President if you are looking for a great story of overcoming adversity and getting your dreams, then this is the book for you." Now Joe is probably pretty bored at about this point and so he opens the book and gets lost for a few hours while he is winging his way to the other side of the world.

By the time he reaches South Korea he has finished the novel and is a changed man. Joe gets off the plane with book in hand and waves to reporters and holds The Pitcher high as a question comes from the press. " Mr Vice President, do you think you can get the North Koreans to change their minds?"' Old Joe lifts The Pitcher high and says, "Hey, if this kid can do it...anybody can do it." And everyone claps as they try and see what book the Veep is holding.

Of course he might not read it at all...but that would be a different story.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher...Sometimes a dream is all you have
 

Publishers Weekly Review of The Pitcher

                                                              

While ostensibly a contemporary baseball story, Hazelgrove’s expansive fifth novel also tackles issues of class, immigration law, and inequity. Thirteen-year-old Ricky Hernandez has a 75 mph pitch and dreams of making the freshman baseball team in Jacksonville, Fla., as the first step toward a professional career. He’s dyslexic, of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, and is ceaselessly taunted by his peers, led by a kid named Eric with an inside track to making the team.

While most of Ricky’s teammates can afford sports camp and private lessons, he and his mother are broke due to his abusive father’s lack of financial support and his mother’s mounting medical bills. Despite her deteriorating health, she has loads of attitude, brains, and charm. She singlehandedly persuades their neighbor, “The Pitcher,” who played in the World Series, to set aside his beer, leave his garage, and coach Ricky. 

Hazelgrove (Rocket Man) measures out a generous sprinkling of American idealism while weaving in legitimate threads of sorrow, employing the oft-used baseball metaphor to fresh and moving effect. Adult characters are particularly well-crafted, giving the book crossover potential.

 

 

Bookstores Floated by us

The latest is independents are now being saved by donations. Who would have thought people would do this but they chip in by the thousands. The question is where does it lead. The rapaciousness of ecommerce and conglomeration  will only continue. The niche of selling books will be harder and harder to sustain as economics dictate buying patterns. Ebooks seem to have waned a bit but no one knows if this is hardware driven or a real lull in the ipodification of books.

When you think about it authors have been sustained by grants and universities for hundreds of years. Literary writers would surely perish if not for other sources of income and I suppose the bookstore could be attached to that vein of intellectual bookselling. A person who knows and talks books versus a salesman who could just as easily be selling televisions.

But of course not all bookstores can be saved this way. They will have to find their unique corner to stay viable against the last remaining giants of Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I have no problem donating to save my favorite bookstore. It's just they keep closing so fast I have to find a new one every few months.

The Pitcher...sometimes a dream is all you have