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

Baseball Endures

Through world wars and undeclared wars, despite multiple player strikes and owner lockouts, through the terrorist attacks of 9/11, through the current pandemic, baseball has always bounced back, being a salve for the wounded American psyche. Sure, games have been suspended, as this season, but eventually, pennant races went on, fans flocked back, and a community was always resurrected. It's the American pastime because it is part of the American fabric. As surely as the Stars and Stripes wave, baseball will be there, its mere presence a source of comfort for fans, and a sign of normalcy for the rest of the American population. Baseball will always -- must always -- endure!

Book Excerpt

Strike Four A Baseball Novel

It was hot out for an evening ball game, but Lew didn’t have time to think about the weather, or what was being said up in the booth. The ballplayer part of his brain took over, processing everything around him in an orderly queue of stimuli. The lights surrounding the stadium turned dusk into day, creating the illusion from his viewpoint that the infield dirt was actually a reddish-orange. A slight breeze rustled his uniform sleeves, and his nostrils were momentarily assaulted with the greasy smell of hot dogs being cooked up in the stadium’s concourse. And of course mosquitoes pestered him. That surprised him, as he always assumed the Major League had somehow found a way to keep the annoying bugs at bay.

His insides became taut as the first pitch of the game was smacked out to the left-most portion of his territory. He ran for the ball hard and stretched out his left hand, oblivious of Gordie coming toward him. The two just missed colliding as the center fielder nabbed the rocket near his left shin, leaving Lew’s mitt outstretched and empty.

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Gary Frisch

Strike Four A Baseball Novel

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Baseball Endures

Book Excerpt

Strike Four A Baseball Novel

Comment on this Bubble