An Almost Perfect Game

by Stephen Manes

What if you and your scorecard could control the biggest baseball game of the year?
 
There's a wild, weird night of baseball in store for Nottingham Shoppers fan Jake Kratzer. The pennant is on the line, and it's do or die for his favorite team. When Jake takes his place in the stands, he's only hoping for a Shoppers win, a few good hot dogs, and maybe a Fan Appreciation Night prize to top it off.

But when Jake starts marking plays on his scorecard, strange things begin to happen on the field. It seems to him that with a few strokes of his pencil, he can control the game.
Or can he? Jake can't quite figure out why some of his dream plays come true, while others backfire miserably. Can Jake figure out the card's secret in time to lead the Shoppers to victory and help his favorite player make baseball history? Or will the game find a way to throw him one of its classic spitballs?
 
Praise for An Almost Perfect Game!
 
A valentine to a game that was, and could be again, almost perfect. . . . Manes deftly slips readers into the stands, recreating the authentic flavor of a minor league ball game. . . . Funny incidents and one-liners sparkle throughout . . .
--Kirkus Reviews
 
Manes captures the experience of a family sharing its love and knowledge of baseball and makes it easy to follow the play-by-play action. Filled with baseball lore and jargon, this will appeal to young fans of the game . . .
--Booklist
 
These tales are hits . . . What baseball fan hasn't sat in front of the TV or in the stands, wishing for the power to change the outcome of the game?
--Associated Press
 
  An Almost Perfect Game puts an imaginative twist on one child's love of our national pastime.
--Boston Globe
 
An easy-to-read mix of fantasy and baseball that is sure to appeal to many sports-oriented readers.
--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
 
Manes wonderfully evokes minor-league baseball at its most irrepressible, and the witty, first-person narration helps to carry the story along. For enthusiasts of the sport with a taste for a little fantasy, this will be just the ticket.
--School Library Journal

Genres: Baseball

162 pages, Library Binding

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

Stephen Manes (born 1949) wrote the "Digital Tools" column that appeared in every issue of Forbes until recently when he took a break. He is expected to return in the future. He is also co-host and co-executive editor of the public television series "PC World's Digital Duo," a program he helped create.

Manes was previously the Personal Computers columnist for the Science Times section of The New York Times and a regular columnist for InformationWeek. He has been on the technology beat since 1982 as a columnist and contributing editor for PC Magazine, PC/Computing, PC Sources, PCjr, and Netguide. The now defunct Marketing Computers named him one of the four most influential writers about the computer industry and called him "a strong critical voice."

From April 1995 to December 2008, he also wrote the "Full Disclosure" column, anchoring the back page of PC World.

Manes is coauthor of the best-selling and definitive biography Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry--and Made Himself the Richest Man in America. He also wrote The Complete MCI Mail Handbook and programmed much of the Starfixer and UnderGround WordStar software packages.

Manes is also the author of more than 30 books for children and young adults, including the Publishers Weekly bestseller Make Four Million Dollars by Next Thursday! and the award-winning Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!, which was adapted for the public television series Wonderworks. His books include the cult favorites Chicken Trek and The Obnoxious Jerks and have won a commendation from the National Science Foundation, International Reading Association Children's Choice awards, and kid-voted awards in five states. His writing credits also include television programs produced by ABC Television and KCET/Los Angeles and the 70s classic 20th Century-Fox movie Mother, Jugs & Speed.

Manes is currently serving his fourth term as an elected member of the National Council of the Authors Guild, the country's oldest organization of book authors. Born and raised in the hills of Pittsburgh, he now lives in hillier Seattle.

Reviews

[Isaiah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that an almost perfect game was a really good book because. this is a good book because I liked what happened, who would like this book, I could understand what the book was about(I could picture it in my head). Im going to tell you about the three reasons why I thought that this was a good book.
My first reason why I thought this was a good book is that I liked what happened in the book for example when he found out that his scorecard was magic(if he wrote a score down before the pitcher pitched it would happen), when his grandmother tells him to stop copying off of her score card, and when they won the game.
My second reason is I could understand what the writer was talking about and actually picture in my head what was happening in the book like when they hit a home run they gave a lot of detail about the crowd and what the ball looked like up high in the sky.
My third reason is about who would like this book. people who like baseball and funny books would like this book.
That is why I thought this was a good book. I would recommend this book to people who like baseball and funny books. I rate this book five stars.

[Ms. Graves · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of the book sounded great, but the story kind of fizzled for me.