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Brooklyn Dodgers #4
Rookie of the Year
The complex web of relationships that make up a major league baseball team is the heart of this story about a rookie pitcher who becomes a threat to his team’s chances for the pennant. Introduction by Bruce Brooks.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1944
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59 people want to read
About the author
John R. Tunis
47 books10 followersJohn Roberts Tunis "the 'inventor' of the modern sports story",was an American writer and broadcaster. Known for his juvenile sports novels, Tunis also wrote short stories and non-fiction, including a weekly sports column for the New Yorker magazine. As a commentator Tunis was part of the first trans-Atlantic sports cast and the first broadcast of the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament to the United States.
After graduating from Harvard and serving in the Army during World War I, Tunis began his writing career freelancing for American sports magazines while playing tennis in the Rivera. For the next two decades he wrote short stories and articles about sports and education for magazines including Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.
Tunis' work often protested the increasing professionalization of sports in America. He believed that amateur participation in sports taught values important for good citizenship like perseverance, fair play and equality, and that the emphasis on professional sports was turning America into a country of spectators. His sports books also tackled current social issues such as antisemitism and racial equality.
Though Tunis never considered himself a children's writer, all but one of his twenty-four books were published for juveniles; their success helped create the juvenile fiction book market in the 1940s. Books like Iron Duke (1938), All American (1942) and Keystone Kids (1943) were well received by readers and critics. Iron Duke received the New York Herald Tribune Spring Book Festival Award for best juvenile novel and was named a The Horn Book Magazine Best Book. The Child Study Association of America gave its Golden Scroll Award to Keystone Kids.
In his tribute to the writer, Bernard Hayes said "Tunis has probably made good readers of millions of young people." His success with the juvenile audience helped change the publishing industry. Along with writers like Howard Pease, his books demonstrated to publishers that there was money to be made in targeting books for teenagers. His influence went beyond simply creating a market for young adult books. "In his attempt to link sports with the communities in which they are played, he broached some highly significant issues in the literature written for and about America's youth", according to John S. Simmons in John R. Tunis and the Sports Novels for Adolescents: A Little Ahead of His Time. Tunis never considered himself a writer of boys' books, insisting his stories could be read and enjoyed by adults. He felt that the word "juvenile" was an "odious... product of a merchandising age". Despite his dislike of the term, Tunis' novels helped create and shape the juvenile fiction book market.
After graduating from Harvard and serving in the Army during World War I, Tunis began his writing career freelancing for American sports magazines while playing tennis in the Rivera. For the next two decades he wrote short stories and articles about sports and education for magazines including Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.
Tunis' work often protested the increasing professionalization of sports in America. He believed that amateur participation in sports taught values important for good citizenship like perseverance, fair play and equality, and that the emphasis on professional sports was turning America into a country of spectators. His sports books also tackled current social issues such as antisemitism and racial equality.
Though Tunis never considered himself a children's writer, all but one of his twenty-four books were published for juveniles; their success helped create the juvenile fiction book market in the 1940s. Books like Iron Duke (1938), All American (1942) and Keystone Kids (1943) were well received by readers and critics. Iron Duke received the New York Herald Tribune Spring Book Festival Award for best juvenile novel and was named a The Horn Book Magazine Best Book. The Child Study Association of America gave its Golden Scroll Award to Keystone Kids.
In his tribute to the writer, Bernard Hayes said "Tunis has probably made good readers of millions of young people." His success with the juvenile audience helped change the publishing industry. Along with writers like Howard Pease, his books demonstrated to publishers that there was money to be made in targeting books for teenagers. His influence went beyond simply creating a market for young adult books. "In his attempt to link sports with the communities in which they are played, he broached some highly significant issues in the literature written for and about America's youth", according to John S. Simmons in John R. Tunis and the Sports Novels for Adolescents: A Little Ahead of His Time. Tunis never considered himself a writer of boys' books, insisting his stories could be read and enjoyed by adults. He felt that the word "juvenile" was an "odious... product of a merchandising age". Despite his dislike of the term, Tunis' novels helped create and shape the juvenile fiction book market.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 21, 2016
A Baseball season is almost over for the Dodgers are down 10 games behind the Cardinals. A rookie pitcher Hathaway, as he gets worse Spike the manager gets closer to losing his job. Hathaway is risking his team the ability to go to the playoffs. Hathaway and Spike are getting close to being traded or even fired from MLB.
In the beginning of the book Hathaway does decent but then the season is almost over then he starts to get really bad uncontrollable with his pitches. Hathaway was a good batter then within the last 26 games his hitting gets bad and he has talks with the manager. He starts to struggle more towards the end of the story and starts to get angry. At the end of the story Hathaway becomes a better pitcher but still struggles a little bit.
I liked the book because of the struggles the pitcher is going through and it shows what not to do sometimes. It wasn't the best because of the yelling it shows at the umpire and how mad he gets. It could of had more about how his pitches weren't working and more like a simulation so it feels like the reader is actually in the story also. Over all it was a pretty good book it was interesting.
In the beginning of the book Hathaway does decent but then the season is almost over then he starts to get really bad uncontrollable with his pitches. Hathaway was a good batter then within the last 26 games his hitting gets bad and he has talks with the manager. He starts to struggle more towards the end of the story and starts to get angry. At the end of the story Hathaway becomes a better pitcher but still struggles a little bit.
I liked the book because of the struggles the pitcher is going through and it shows what not to do sometimes. It wasn't the best because of the yelling it shows at the umpire and how mad he gets. It could of had more about how his pitches weren't working and more like a simulation so it feels like the reader is actually in the story also. Over all it was a pretty good book it was interesting.
August 21, 2016
This book is one in the series about a fictional Brooklyn Dodgers team authored by Tunis. Most of the recurring characters appear in this one, yet the emphasis is on shortstop and playing manager Spike Russell along with rookie pitcher Hathaway.
When the story opens, the Dodgers are in fourth place and it is the last half of the season, but they have begun to gel as a team and are now winning. Although it will be difficult, there is a glimmer of hope that they will be able to challenge for the pennant.
The main plot revolves around the stress and challenges of keeping the team focused on their drive for the title. Things will occasionally go wrong and people will make errors, but it is Spike’s job to always look forward to the next game and increasing their chances of winning it.
A sub-plot revolves around the nefarious machinations of a member of the Dodgers organization that is determined to create problems for the team, even if it costs them the pennant. While this adds some human interest to the story, it detracts from the focus on the events on the field and the plans that Spike makes as the manager.
Tunis demonstrates once again that he is a master at writing adolescent sports fiction. While modern readers may not understand some of the references, specifically to the amounts of money involved, those that understand the history of baseball will have no difficulty.
When the story opens, the Dodgers are in fourth place and it is the last half of the season, but they have begun to gel as a team and are now winning. Although it will be difficult, there is a glimmer of hope that they will be able to challenge for the pennant.
The main plot revolves around the stress and challenges of keeping the team focused on their drive for the title. Things will occasionally go wrong and people will make errors, but it is Spike’s job to always look forward to the next game and increasing their chances of winning it.
A sub-plot revolves around the nefarious machinations of a member of the Dodgers organization that is determined to create problems for the team, even if it costs them the pennant. While this adds some human interest to the story, it detracts from the focus on the events on the field and the plans that Spike makes as the manager.
Tunis demonstrates once again that he is a master at writing adolescent sports fiction. While modern readers may not understand some of the references, specifically to the amounts of money involved, those that understand the history of baseball will have no difficulty.
April 7, 2015
Rookie of the Year by John R. Tunis is a book that talks about baseball. In the book a baseball team, the Dodgers, pick up a rookie pitcher that becomes a great baseball player. The team was not good and was in last place. When they signed a rookie pitcher to the team, Bones, they started winning games and started to move up in the league. Bones made some bad decisions which was a setback to the team, but they solved them and moved on to winning games. Bones Hathaway, the rookie pitcher, is the main character was a not a responsible person in the book. He made many bad decisions throughout the book that hurt his team and hurt his manager. He was one of the youngest guys on the team and one of the best. I would recommend this book to people that like baseball and to people that like sports that know how baseball works. You need to know a little about baseball to understand the book. If you like this book, you may also like World Series by John R. Tunis because it also talks about baseball and brings you through other conflicts in baseball.
September 15, 2013
If you want a suspenseful, exiting, realistic fiction novel about baseball, Rookie of the year by John R. Tunis is the book for you. It starts as a player/manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, his name is spike Russell, trying to get his team back into the playoff race.
His team is 10 games behind the division leading cardinals. even though they are way behind in the standings, spike believes that he can rally his team to the World Series. It may seem that the dodgers already have their work cut out for them, but then someone that is part of the organization try's to frame the team's star rookie pitcher and get him kicked off the club!
I would recommend this book to people 9 and up. The words in this book are very well spaced and the words are very large. The plot isn't too complicated so just about everyone could understand it.
Will spike rally his team to victory? Will they overcome the pitching obstacle? read rookie of the year by John R. Tunis to find out!
His team is 10 games behind the division leading cardinals. even though they are way behind in the standings, spike believes that he can rally his team to the World Series. It may seem that the dodgers already have their work cut out for them, but then someone that is part of the organization try's to frame the team's star rookie pitcher and get him kicked off the club!
I would recommend this book to people 9 and up. The words in this book are very well spaced and the words are very large. The plot isn't too complicated so just about everyone could understand it.
Will spike rally his team to victory? Will they overcome the pitching obstacle? read rookie of the year by John R. Tunis to find out!
December 1, 2009
I found this in the free books bin and figured, why not? Maybe it will allow me to appreciate baseball more. I can't say that it necessarily did that, but it established the time and settling well. The plot was kinda simplistic - but then, it was written for the 8-and-up age group.
There aren't many clues to time period, except an offhand comment - one of the older players played during Babe Ruth's last year as a player. So, late 30s or sometime in the 40s?
EDIT: on re-read, and with the knowledge of having read the author's other books about these characters, I'd say this is set sometime in the first half of the 40s. I'd also rate its re-read value as low -- the pacing is rather slow.
There aren't many clues to time period, except an offhand comment - one of the older players played during Babe Ruth's last year as a player. So, late 30s or sometime in the 40s?
EDIT: on re-read, and with the knowledge of having read the author's other books about these characters, I'd say this is set sometime in the first half of the 40s. I'd also rate its re-read value as low -- the pacing is rather slow.
September 9, 2009
This book is the best book Ive ever read. This book is about a 13 year old boy who after getting a suverd injury in his arm, the oporation did not go as well as he thought.Then when he threw the ball he ended up throwing 10 mph.He got reconized after he cought a ball. (he was in a maor league baseball game)He threw it back to the pitcher so fast that the eveybody started looking at him and the mayor leuge team talked to him, So the team offered him to play for there mayor leuge baseball team.Soo thats not it theres tons of adventures the kid makes fun of the runners on baseball and everything its jus a book that will make you cry,for boys problably jeoulous and possebly make you ''pee out of your pants".
January 20, 2012
This book is great for anyone that loves the sport of baseball. It is about a Brooklyn Dodgers team who have the perfect balance of veterans and youngsters. They always have luck on their side, and use the luck to win a lot of games and get into the postseason. I think this book is very interesting because it feels like you are in the clubhouse with the team. It is a must read for sports fans.
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February 27, 2012I made this book my bitch
January 12, 2015
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13115820
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13115820
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews