Strike Four: A Baseball Novel

Sports & Outdoors

synopsis

Synopsis

Major League Baseball has been crippled by yet another players’ strike, and the fans have had enough, tired of paying to see ballplayers with seven-figure egos but ten-cent work ethics. When baseball’s commissioner floats the idea of enlisting the minor leaguers to keep revenues flowing, Lew Pearson, the aging player-manager of the Triple-A Indianapolis Outlaws, sees his chance to fulfill a lifelong dream. Having never had more than a “cup of coffee” in the big league, Lew leaves his wife and two young kids behind to play in the bigs, even though he knows he and his teammates will just be the pawns of the owners. Baseball runs deep in his blood – his father’s own professional dreams were trampled on many years before – and despite the big asterisk that will accompany every game, it’s an opportunity that beckons him. But no one, including Lew, the owners and the striking Major Leaguers, could predict how fans would embrace these farmhands, who take the field every day not for their big paychecks but purely for the love of the game. At first the crowds are small, but as the fan frenzy takes root in ballparks across the country, both sides of the strike confront a new normal, and an audacious plan takes shape in board rooms to determine once and for all whether the Major Leaguers or the minor leaguers will get the privilege of remaining in “the show.”

bio

Author Biography

Gary Frisch is a long-time sports fan with a special place in his heart for hockey and baseball. A lifelong writer and former journalist, he has contributed many articles and columns to a variety of newspapers and magazines. He was inspired to write Strike Four as a result of multiple player strikes and lockouts that marred baseball in the 1980s and ‘90s, during which the media frequently speculated that owners might bring up minor league players to fill the rosters. Frisch works in the public relations field, and has owned his own PR agency since 2007. In 2015, he was named to Linkedin’s inaugural list of “Top Voices of the Year” for his contributions to the business networking site’s blog. He lives in Gloucester Township, New Jersey, with his wife and two children, and frequently writes under the watchful eye of his cat and two dogs.

website

Author Insight

Never Give Up on the Dream

Just as my novel's main character, Lew Pearson, continues his dream of playing Major League baseball, my dream continues to become a bestselling author, a sold screenwriter, or both. In an era of self-publishing, the hope persists that my novel will be discovered by an influential agent, publisher, or producer. Or that it will get a great review on a well-read site and I'll wake up to find I've sold a thousand copies in a day. It has been my dream since I first put pen to paper decades ago, and has persisted through various rewrites. Am I past my writing prime? Far from it. And I definitely am not ready to give up the dream!

Book Excerpt

Strike Four: A Baseball Novel

He was past his baseball prime now and had not made it onto a Major League roster. Sure, there

had been times in his career, including May of this season, that he had been promoted to replace

an injured player, though his tenure had never lasted more than two games at a time. That was

all it took, though. In just eighteen innings he had learned what it felt like to get up to bat in front of 40,000 people and a cyclops-like television camera. It didn’t matter that the fans didn’t know

his name – he was driven by the desire to make them know. In just eighteen innings he learned what he was missing and what he had been craving his entire life.

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Gary Frisch

Strike Four: A Baseball Novel

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Never Give Up on the Dream

Book Excerpt

Strike Four: A Baseball Novel

Comment on this Bubble