Baseball Fiction

What does clinical hypnosis that cured a 12-year old's bed wetting and the wisdom of a Persian Holy Man's book have to do with major league pitching? A phenomenal rookie pitcher and an over-the-hill bullpen catcher invent "weasel ball", which employs the power of suggestion rather than common trash talk to affect opposing hitters. The pitcher, a used bookstore junkie and student of ancient wisdom, carries a mysterious book in his hip pocket.

Over its hundred and fifty year history, professional baseball has experienced its share of scandals and embarrassments -- sometimes involving players, sometimes teams, sometimes team owners, sometimes the leadership of the game itself, and sometimes even the fans. There's been gambling. There's been cheating. There's been drug abuse. There's been outrageous rhetoric. There's been drunken rioting. There's been wife-swapping. There's been All-Star voting abuse. There's been overt racism, collusion, litigation, court challenges, strikes and lockouts.

I was issued an ultimatum between the two loves of my life: her or the game. No matter what I choose, I have to give up something I love. Spring training is my first chance to show the world that Cooper Noah is back after the elbow injury that took me out of the game. It's the stage I stand on to prove I'm the starter the Vegas Heat is paying big bucks for. But my heart isn't in any of it. My heart can't be in it when it's broken. There's no way I can have both, but I've made my choice. It's time to play hardball.

Our team is assembled, and the Vegas Heat is ready for our first season. Life is perfect except for one thing: I can't tell anybody about the love of my life. The more time passes, the more people find out. It's only a matter of time before her father learns the truth, but it has to come from us. If it doesn't, our relationship will become like a groundball that'll eventually roll to a stop… but there won't be anyone there to pick it up.

Antonio Ramirez is ready to leave his wild reputation behind in New York and adopt a more respectable life with the Texas Mustangs. When he spies the woman of his dreams at a Fundraiser-its love at first sight. Convincing Clare Kincaid that he's sincere is harder than he expected. Giving Clare what she wants could wreck his career and compromise his feelings for her. When super sexy Antonio Ramirez approaches her, Clare is sure he's playing a cruel game, but the Mustangs new Center Fielder won't take no for an answer.

What’s a 16-year-old boy to do when he learns that his stepmother and a local judge have murdered his father and now plan to kill him, too? Well, when it’s 1906, and you can play pretty good second base, you join a barn-storming baseball team making its way across Kansas. It also helps that the team is the Kansas City National Bloomer Girls. After all, who’d look for a runaway boy disguised as a girl on a women’s team that competes against town-ball teams of male players? Of course, it’ll take more than long hair, a Spalding glove, and a quick bat to stay alive.

Being the only woman working for a professional baseball team isn't easy. As the San Diego Shock's newest athletic trainer, Allie knows all about long hours, endless travel, and warding off players' advances. Given she's already the subject of a handful of rumors about how "lucky" she was to have earned such a coveted position, she can't so much as flutter an eyelash a player's way if she wants to be taken seriously. But number 11 is doing more than fluttering eyelashes Allie's way. Far more.

Mariano Rivera never dreamed of becoming a professional athlete. He didn't grow up collecting baseball cards, playing Little League, or cheering on his home team at the World Series. He had never heard of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, or Mickey Mantle. But one day, that all changed...

A mild mannered CPA and baseball fan travels back in time to prevent the 1919 World Series from being fixed, and saving the reputations of Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte. Along the way, he meets lots of interesting characters from that era. He not only must stop the scandal, but has a murderer on his tail trying to stop him.

Matt Granite goes to Philadelphia to play the Flintlocks. The City of Brotherly Love is anything but as they try every trick in the book to get under the young catcher's skin. Not to worry, Sean and Jack are there to make things right. Johnny Morinda, the manager of the Tangelos, joins the gang. There will be nostalgia...there will be a stripper pole in the Flintlocks owner's suite.

Join Matt Granite, the San Francisco Gladiators star high school catcher as he goes on the road to face Johnny Morinda and the Los Angeles Tangelos. This time it will be Matt and his friends Sean and Jack matching wits against the Tangelos and their pea green uniforms on their arch rival’s home turf. It’s all in for the trio as the baseball world still hasn’t recovered from their debut in Row 25 Seat 12.

Matt Granite plays baseball for his High School team and voted as Most Valuable Player. When they win the sectional High School championship, Matt and his friends are taken to watch the San Francisco Gladiators as a reward. Matt has been passed by every major league baseball team, in the amateur draft. Big league clubs avoid high school catchers like the plague...they never work out. Little does Matt know, but his world is about to change forever.

On the field and off the field, bartender Jeanine Jewell plays, collecting one-night stands like baseball cards. She doesn't need a man, except to curl her toes and make her scream. She's learned the hard way that love is about control and manipulation - and the last thing she can handle is letting herself be vulnerable, or having anyone discover her shameful secret. Scoring women is easy for catcher Kirk Kennedy - they don't call him "Catch and Release" for nothing. He never goes back for a repeat performance. Being traded to a new city is an opportunity for new adventures.

I'm nobody's baby daddy. I don't care how many stunning women throw themselves at me, looking to turn one hot night into an 18-year paycheck. I've got way too much on the line to throw it away for one night of pleasure. Ball is life, and basketball is my first priority. I've got a championship to win. But when I see that familiar face shaking her pom-poms on the sidelines, I'm transported back to childhood, back to the days before a fiery plane crash ripped us apart, forcing us to grow up overnight.

Aiden Emerson is an all-star pitcher and the all-around golden boy of Riverton. Or at least he was, before he quit the team the last day of junior year without any explanation. How could he tell people he's losing his vision at 17? Straitlaced Olivia thought she had life all figured out. But when her dream internship falls apart, her estranged mother comes back into her life, and her longtime boyfriend ghosts her right before summer break, she's starting to think fate has a weird sense of humor.

Eleven-year-old Tommy has dreamed of being on the Bulldogs sports team forever. The Bulldogs eat, breathe, and fart sports. They’re part of the elusive Super Sports Society in his hometown, and Tommy knows that if he makes the team, he’ll be set up for life. Meanwhile, Pel would rather be at home gaming in the air conditioning, but his mom decided that he has to “be a role model” to his little siblings (ugh!), and now he’s trying out for the Bulldogs too. At least that means the two BFFs won’t be in competition for the spot . . . right? (Wrong.)

When local baseball player Junior Jones receives death threats over the color of his skin, the team's wealthy owner hires Sam Rockwell to solve the case and stop a murder before it happens. Sam goes undercover as a minor league pitcher to strike out the culprit. Follow the clues along with Sam's curmudgeonly ghost of a father Frank Rockwell, and Sam's wife Amelia, who holds a secret that will forever change the lives of the entire Rockwell family. It's another laugh-filled, madcap mystery in the warm, witty 1950's Hollywood-style of author Jason Anspach.

Wes: Life on the road as a pro-ballplayer isn't without it's drawbacks. And now, without a team to play for, I find myself heading home. Maybe it's a good thing. I can focus on my daughter, Izzy, and my life. I need to get things straightened out, including that hole that I never filled after Izzy's mom left. But, is there anything that could keep me in town if another team came calling?

All-Star player Ben Zobrist (Tampa Bay Rays), considered one of the best all-around players in baseball, writes about the importance of his faith, life, and athletic career in Double Play. Written with his wife, Christian singer Julianna Zobrist, and MikeYorkey, best-selling author of Every Man's Battle and Linspired: The Remarkable Rise of Jeremy Lin, the audiobook gives fans a first look into the heart of an athlete whose talent and devotion to God, family, and baseball make him one of the most loveable figures in the Major League today.

Time: August, 1950. Place: A suburb north of Fenway Park. Young Billy Flynn is determined to find truth and direction, in spite of a family that opposes him at every turn and a neighborhood populated by a host of zany, insensitive, un-politically correct characters, who aspire to little and value even less. It is light. It is heavy. It is American. It is Irish/American. It is sad. It is funny. And if it weren't for the irrepressible spirit and persistence of its hero, Billy Flynn, it could have been tragic.