Some similar works done by the author are Fast Break, Fantasy League, QB 1, True Legend, Safe at Home, Game Changers, Long Shot, Million-Dollar Throw, Heat, Shoot-Out, Travel Team, and Two-Minute Drill. The major characters in this book are Brian (Batboy), Hank (Baseball Player), and Mom (Brian's Mom). This book took place in Brian's hometown. The atmosphere of this book is excited/confident. This book is told in the view of 1st person. The boy in the story, Brian Dudley and his father Cole Dudley, who used to pitch in the major leagues always go to Detroit Tiger games and sit in section 135. Cole Dudley was obsessed with baseball, so obsessed that he left his family and moved to Japan to be a pitching coach. For Brian it was rough facing that his own dad …show more content…
Brian was so happy he got the job and was very excited when school was over with and that summer has started. Brian’s mom, Liz Dudley is a main character in the book. Liz Dudley used to like baseball just like Brian and his father Cole. Then when Cole Dudley left Liz and Brian Dudley, Liz Dudley then stopped watching baseball because it thought of her husband Cole. Even though she does not like baseball, Liz Dudley would still attend to Brian’s baseball games. Another major character is Hank Bishop. Hank Bishop is Brian’s favorite player. Unfortunately though Hank Bishop made some bad decisions in his life and got caught using steroids by the MLB and got suspended, plus he had no one to play for. But then the Detroit Tigers picked him up and Brian was really excited to hear the news. Another character in the book is Brian’s best friend Kenny. Kenny was the pitcher for the sing and he was the best pitcher on the team. Another character in the book is Finn. Finn is another one of the batboys Brian meets. The
Hutch, the main character of The Big Field, has played baseball all of his life. He has always played shortstop, the same position that his father dreamed of playing as a professional. “Hutch, had always thought of himself as the captain of any infield he’d ever been a part of” (Lupica 1). Hutch finds himself being demoted to second base because there is another player, Darryl, on his new team that is expected to go pro and also plays shortstop. Hutch struggles because he does not want to play second base and his father does not support him because he does not want baseball to break Hutch’s dreams like it did his own. Hutch is betrayed by his father and Darryl when he finds them practicing together. Hutch has to learn to adjust and eventually becomes friends with Darryl, the up and coming shortstop. He understands that if he wants to win, then he needs to work together with Darryl. His father also comes around and finally gives Hutch his approval. Students should read this book in a high school English classroom because it demonstrates how relationships can be difficult, but teamwork can help to solve many issues.
In Hirsch’s poem “Fast Break”, written in memory of a basketball playing friend, Dennis Turner, tells us about an intense fast break play. Basketball can be a tempestuous sport to overcome, you never know when a shot could cost you a win. A fast break is an exciting play that Hirsch describes using metaphors and similes.
This book takes place in and around the Chicago area. Gale and Brian are both trying to get the spot as the Chicago Bears starting halfback. They both are rookies.
“If you build it, he will come” (Kinsella 1). These words of an announcer jump start a struggle for Ray Kinsella to ease the tragic life of Shoeless Joe Jackson. Ray hears a voice of an announcer which leads him to build a baseball field that brings Shoeless Joe Jackson onto the field. However, this field puts his family on the verge of bankruptcy which is just one of the struggles Ray Kinsella is presented in his life. Shoeless Joe Jackson is no stranger to having no money, as he was only making a measly $1.25 as a kid struggling to support his family. He never attended school and was illiterate throughout his entire life. The struggle is completely the same with Ray Kinsella growing up, as he is forced into baseball, which ultimately makes him run away from home. Ray’s hate is Joes love. Joe loves baseball and makes it to the major leagues, but it doesn’t last. Joe’s career is cut short due to the fact he is accused of throwing the World Series, and banned from baseball forever. Rays’s father would have loved it if his son made it to the major leagues because he thought Ray had the potential and talent. However, his only dream was simple, he wanted to play a game of catch with his son, unfortunately, he passed away and he never got to see his son after he ran away. Shoeless Joe Jackson’s death wasn’t any better, as he died guilty of throwing the World Series which was the biggest sports tragedy to date. Tragedies are not uncommon phenomena, Ray Kinsella and Shoeless Joe Jackson have the unfortunate luck to go through a struggle fulfilled and uphill battle in what is suppose to be a wonderful thing, life.
But it's a book about people who are baseball players. The story evolves through their lives and the events of a baseball season. So it's an atmosphere that baseball lovers can relate to.
The four main characters in the book are Drue “True” Robinson, Lee Atkins, Urban “Legend” Donald Sellers, and Mr. Gilbert. Drue is a rising basketball star from New York City. He played in an all-star game, where Mr. Gilbert first noticed him. Mr. Gilbert convinced Drue and his mom to come to the east coast where he would find his mom a job and a nice home. Drue became friends with Lee the first day of school and later in the book he becomes friends with Legend.
Despite this notion, he had attempted to fix his mistakes, proving himself to be a genuinely sympathetic hero. Although a little too late, Hobbs by the end of the novel ultimately proves himself to be a sympathetic character through his sincere behavior. While waiting to bat in his last game Hobbs acknowledges and reveals that saving this game is “the most important thing that he ever had to do in his life” (230). Hobbs, after all, is “thoroughly human” and readers are reminded of this nature when “going down the stairs he fought his overwhelming self-hatred. In each stinking wave of it he remembered some disgusting happening of his life” (xii,
The next character that intrigued me was Brian, the quote-on-quote "nerd." A nerd is a person that is academically inclined and is known for striving to get good grades and being socially inept. His confession of why he was in Saturday detention seemed a lot more serious then it actually turned out to be. He was in Saturday detention because he had a gun in his locker. He bought the gun to kill because he had intent on killing himself.
Timeless themes of equality, truth and perseverance are presented in this heartwarming tale of one courageous softball player and the wiffle bat that she adored. It all begins one summer day shortly after Tegan's sixth birthday. The scene opens with the young girl enviously watching a group of children play wiffle ball in the park across the street from her grandmother's house. She furtively glances behind her at the kitchen entrance and listens to the sounds of lunch preparations while contemplating the distance to the door. With a determined look in her eye, she takes a shaky deep breath and dashes out to the park to join the game, all the while looking back and wondering what her grandma would say. She approaches the field and stands by the rusty fence behind the plate. One of the older girls – she looks about ten or twelve – spots Tegan and invites her to join in. The kids show her how to swing the bat and the pitcher starts to toss the ball in her direction; they let her keep swinging until she hits one. When she does, the light wiffle ball catches the wind, floats high in the air, swirls around a bit, and lands two inches from Tegan's feet. After staring at the ball in wonder, she looks up and a slow smile spreads across her face. The other kids laugh and Tegan joins in with glee. The boy at first base looks at his watch and yells, "Hey, it's lunch time," causing all the wiffle ball players to scatter and race home in search of food. The girl that invited Tegan to play tells her to come back tomorrow in the morning to play a game with them and Tegan agrees with an enthusiastic nod of the head. She turns to run back for lunch, and sees her grandmother waiting by the fence.
If you like baseball and you need to find a good book, well here is one it's called Shoeless Joe and Me. It's about a kid name Shoeless Joe who's nickname is Joe Jackson, Joe Jackson played on the Chicago white sox in 1919. They were in the World Series but they lost it because of gambling which caused them to lose the series and they were suspended from baseball and could never play professional baseball again. It was Joe Jackson and a couple of his teammates. If you touched a Joe Jackson card you go back in time and change stuff .
Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) is an unhappy honors student who wishes he could be accepted as a person and not valued just as a brain. Upset over a poor grade in shop, Brian has contemplated suicide rather than live with the ire of his disappointed parents.
The Legend of Mickey Tussler by Frank Nappi is touching, intriguing and embracing. I think the most important part of the story is when Mickey’s dad allowed him to play baseball for Mr. Murphy in Milwaukee. “Let me sign Mickey up for a tryout.… He’ll come back with me and stay with the rest of the fellas on the team.… Clarence was smiling” (Nappi, 16).
“You never know how the tough times you are going through today will inspire someone else tomorrow.” (Tebow, shaken). In his book, Tim Tebow talks about the struggles he's been though and how God has helped him through it all. He lives his life always honoring God and his decisions portray being a Christian. Tim Tebow is a great role model because he's athletic, he's a good leader and mentor and most important he loves God.
Baseball Saved Us is an award winner of the 1993 Parents’ Choice Award and has been given several positive reviewed from known critics. The New York Times quoted that it “Captures the confusion, wonder and terror… with convincing understatement.” Another noticeable source, American Bookseller, quoted that “Surrounded by guards, fences, and desert, Japanese-Americans in an internment camp create a baseball field. A young boy tells how baseball gave them a purpose while enduring injustice and humiliation. The first person narrative is moving.”
The book A Pitch in Time is a great book written by Robert A. Lytle about baseball in 1860's during the American Civil War that I highly recommend. A Pitch in Time is a book about a boy named Mac who travels back in time, and goes through some incredible challenges. Some of these challenges are playing 1860's rules for baseball, living with no plumbing, and the probably least favorite, dealing with a bully.