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.

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Author Insight

A Privilege Not Earned

The old adage says anything worth having is worth working for. Can you truly appreciate anything good if it simply falls into your lap, if you haven’t somehow earned it? For the minor league ballplayers in “Strike Four,” the elation of playing in the Major League is tempered by the nagging feeling that they haven’t earned the privilege through work or talent. Some players are happy to take the spotlight and bigger paycheck without reservation; others feel like they are merely pawns in a high-stakes game between rich baseball players and even richer owners.

Book Excerpt

Strike Four A Baseball Novel

Dean was also feeling lukewarm about his chance to play in the Majors because he hadn’t earned the privilege. He’d be going to Cleveland by default, along with all the other farmhands. And when he got there, he wouldn’t be playing against anyone he hadn’t opposed before. When he tells his grandchildren of his experiences, he’ll have to tack on an asterisk. That was nothing to be proud of. He hoped that when this whole thing was over, he’d have another legitimate chance to work his way up on talent. Only then would he be able to shed that asterisk and talk freely of his career in the big league. Only then would there be no reservations.

Tomorrow was a day off. The right fielder decided he’d probably head to the local pool, get a real bodily suntan, not just the red face and arms and sunglass-shaped raccoon eyes outfielders were prone to on the ball field. He figured it would be his last vacation day for a while.

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Gary Frisch

Strike Four A Baseball Novel

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

A Privilege Not Earned

Book Excerpt

Strike Four A Baseball Novel

Comment on this Bubble