Deadball: A Metaphysical Baseball Novel

by David Stinson

Deadball is the story of former minor-league baseball player Byron Bennett, who has a deep and spiritual connection to the game and its history. He sees things in a way others cannot and believes in things others would not. He thinks the old men working the menial jobs in the diners, dives, and graveyards he frequents are not what they seem. They try to fit in, go unnoticed, but Byron suspects they are not your typical second-career working stiffs. Part pilgrimage and part road trip, Deadball visits vanished ballparks like Baltimore’s Union Park, Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, Cleveland’s League Park, Detroit’s Tiger Stadium, and Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. As visions of baseball’s golden era appear around him with greater frequency and intensity, he must question everything he believes about life, himself, and the game he loves. Are the flickering images he sees real, or are they all in his head? His friends, his ex-wife, and his former teammates don’t believe what he tells them he sees. At times, neither does he.Deadball will appeal to baseball fans and history buffs, but it also will appeal to anyone who knows what it means to be driven by a passion that others can neither appreciate nor understand.John Kelly of The Washington Post "Deadball is about the magical intersection of memory and mystery, a place where the crack of the batand the shouts of the crowd mingle with the bricks and mortar of vanished ballparks. It’s about trying to turn a double into a triple and about trying to turn a barely-held memory into a tangible artifact. Someone once said you can’t go home again. But you can. That’s the whole point of baseball, after all - and of David Stinson’s beguiling new novel."

346 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 16, 2011