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Brendan, the best player on a losing baseball team, learns a lesson from a Chicago Cubs all-star about the true value of the game

95 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

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13 people want to read

About the author

Fred Bowen

59 books26 followers
Fred Bowen is the author of Peachtree’s popular Fred Bowen Sports Story and All-Star Sport Story series. A lifelong sports fanatic, he has coached youth league baseball, basketball, and soccer. His kids’ sports column “The Score” appears each week in the KidsPost section of the Washington Post. Bowen lives in Maryland.

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5 stars
8 (38%)
4 stars
9 (42%)
3 stars
1 (4%)
2 stars
3 (14%)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
2,783 reviews44 followers
February 14, 2020
The standard mold of the classic book of adolescent sports fiction is that the main character is a player on a team that struggles early, rights itself and then plays and wins the big game at the end. Furthermore, girls other than mothers are at best an afterthought in the plot, contributing little to nothing to the power of the story.
That is not the case in the books by Fred Bowen, in this one about baseball, there are female players on the team, and they are good hitters and fielders. Furthermore, there is no winning of the big game at the end, pointing out that in any sports league with a championship, only one team can win its last game. Everyone else must walk away as a member of a losing team.
Brendan is a very good player, one of the best in the league. He is a great hitter and a superb fielder in center field. Yet, his team is not doing well, and he feels that he must “take over,” even though that is impossible in baseball. With the help of his uncle and Cubs fan Jack, Brendan learns that it is often the case that great players never get to be a member of a championship team.
I really enjoyed the references to Cub great Ernie Banks, an all-time figurative champion to all people that know baseball. His joy at being able to play baseball is an inspiration to all who play games for fun or money.
Profile Image for Emilee Cernosek.
8 reviews
May 19, 2011
Playoff Dreams
By: Fred Brown
I just got done reading, Playoff Dreams By: Fred Brown. The genre of this book is Sports!!! What sport is this book you ask?? The sport that this book is based on is baseball.
The main character of this book is Brendan. Brendan’s character traits are, he loves to play baseball, some times in the book he could get a little mean. Brendan looks like, well he has long brown hair, blue eyes, and he always wears his baseball uniform around the house after some of his games.
The main problem in the book is that Brendan plays on a baseball team called the Reds. His team has never made the playoffs and everyone’s dream on the team is to finally make the playoffs this year. So everyone is trying their best at games and at practices to finally make the playoffs.
This book was really good. If I had to rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the best and 1 being the worst I would have to give this book a 10. I gave this book a 10 because this book was better than I thought it would be.
Fred Brown also wrote other books about other sports. The other books he wrote are 1. The Kid Coach 2. Soccer Team Upset 3. Touchdown Trouble 4. Dugout Rivals 5. Hard Court Comeback 6. T.J’s Secret Pitch 7. The Golden Glove 8. Winners Take All 9. Full Court Fever 10. Off The Rim 11. The Final Cut 12. And last is On the Line.
Now I am going to put the number of the book down and tell you what type of sport this book is. Ready??? 1. Baseball 2. Soccer 3. Football 4. Baseball 5. Basketball 6. Baseball 7. Baseball 8.baseball 9. Basketball 10.basketball 11. Basketball and the last on is 12. Basketball.
Will Brendan’s Playoff Dreams come true?? Read all of Fred Browns sports books. If I were you I would only read his baseball books.

Book Review By: Emilee Cernosek
#4.2
Profile Image for Rback.
1 review2 followers
October 4, 2013
i thought that playoff dreams was a inspiring book that Brendan the main character tried so hard to get to the playoffs but he did not make it, the cubs his team played good to get close and they were the worst team in the league and almost got into the playoffs
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

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