A Junior Library Guild Selection. OHazelgrove ("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.ON"Publishers Weekly."
I never knew I had an arm until this guy calls out, "Hey you want to try and get a ball in the hole, sonny?" I am only nine, but Mom says, "Come on, let's play." This carnival guy with no teeth and a fuming cigarette hands me five blue rubber balls and says if I throw three in the hole, we win a prize. He's grinning, because he's taken Mom's five bucks and figures a sucker is born every minute. This really gets me, because we didn't have any money after Fernando took off, and he only comes back to beat up Mom and steal our money. So I really want to get Mom back something, you know, for her five bucks. A boy with a golden arm but no money for lessons. A mother who wants to give her son his dream before she dies. A broken-down World Series pitcher who cannot go on after the death of his wife. These are the elements of The Pitcher. A story of a man at the end of his dream and a boy whose dream is to make his high school baseball team. You will laugh and you will cry as the Pitcher and Ricky prepare for the ultimate tryout of life.