7 Mar 2021

When he arrived in Philadelphia, a cab delivered him to Veterans Stadium, where he was quickly fixed for a uniform, given Number 42, and hustled onto the field. The Cubs were already taking batting practice. Understandably, he was nervous, thrilled, almost bewildered, and when the manager, Whitey Lockman, said, "Get loose. You're starting at first and hitting seventh," Joe Castle had trouble gripping his brand-new bat. In his first round of major-league batting practice, he swung at the first two pitches and missed.

He would not miss again for a long time.

In the summer of 1973 Joe Castle was the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone had ever seen. The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas, dazzled Cub fans as he hit home run after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shattered all rookie records.

Calico Joe quickly became the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faced Calico Joe, Paul was in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his dad. Then Warren threw a fastball that would change their lives forever.

Published: 10th April 2012
Publisher: Doubleday
Goodreads : Click here
Series or Stand-Alone: Stand-Alone
Source: Owned

BOOK REVIEW

I will be the first to admit that I don't follow baseball nor do I know anything about it or how it is played. But this is a novel written by John Grisham, so I am going to read it anyway because I know I will enjoy it for the writing alone, even if I don't really understand the rules of the game.

In this story we follow Joe Castle (Calico Joe) who back in 1973 is the superstar of baseball but also we follow the story of Warren in the present day who is the son of a baseball player who played at the same time as Calico Joe. We mainly follow Warren as he tries to fix a situation that happened so many years ago.

I really enjoyed this story. Yes, I didn't understand the baseball side of it and yes there is a lot of that in this book (as it is meant to) but the characters and the story made this truly enjoyable to me. A son who is trying to help his dad fix a problem that happened so many years ago.

A truly enjoyable story and you really don't have to be a fan of baseball to read this.