Grand Slam

Baseball Genius #3

by Tim Green, Derek Jeter

Jalen DeLuca applies his baseball genius to his own playing in the follow-up to Tim Green and Derek Jeter’s New York Times bestselling novel Baseball Genius .

Jalen DeLuca loves baseball. But he’s more than just a fan and a talented player; Jalen is a baseball genius. He can analyze and predict almost exactly what a pitcher is going to do with his next pitch. His unique ability helped him save the career of the Yankees’s star baseman, James “JY” Yager, by signaling the pitches from the stands.

Now turning his focus to his own baseball career, Jalen has to put his genius into action in new and untested ways. But without the stats and information he has on the pro players, analyzing the pitchers seems impossible. And even if he knows what the pitch will be, actually hitting it takes more than intuition.

As if the pressure of the team and drama with his friends weren’t enough, one major event changes everything—Jalen’s mom comes back into his life. Can Jalen work through it all to hit a grand slam and make his baseball dreams a reality?

Genres: Sports, Fiction, Baseball

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 23, 2021

About the author

Tim Green, for many years a star defensive end with the Atlanta Falcons, is a man of many talents. He's the author of such gripping books for adults as the New York Times bestselling The Dark Side of the Game and a dozen suspense novels, including Exact Revenge and Kingdom Come. Tim graduated covaledictorian from Syracuse University and was a first-round NFL draft pick. He later earned his law degree with honors. Tim has worked as an NFL analyst for FOX Sports and as an NFL commentator for National Public Radio, among other broadcast experience. He lives with his wife, Illyssa, and their five children in upstate New York. Football Genius is his first novel for young readers. For more updates, visit www.facebook.com/authortimgreen

Reviews

[Zackery L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jalen deluca is a baseball genius and star as he just recently started playing with the bronxville bandits and helping his dads restaurant the silver liner. He was also helping james yager But he had to fight for his spot because the yankees just got a new second baseman so Jalen was worried that he would get traded. But when james yager got traded they wanted a silver liner where he got traded to and in the yankees stadiums cause James said that they hac his lucky calamari. With the money that james was paying Jalen he paid detectives to find his mom, but jalens dad does not know and jalen does not want to tell him. Jalen also has a big tournament coming up with really big scouts but jalens dad needs to go look where they are going to put some new silver liners. So he asked his mom to go to the tournament, In the champion ship they were playing the same team as they played in the first round they were making a comeback but lost. After the game his dad was there and said that jalen played really good then a scout came up and asked jalen to be on the number one team in america.


The main theme of this book is to show jalen playing baseball and watching him get better and better as he changes teams, and how he is helping James yager save his career and try to stay on the yankees. They also show how jalen helping james yager helps his dad business by making it known for the stuffed calamari and they show how his business is growing. The book does a great job going over all of the topics that I listed and giving it the drama of his mom coming home at the same time.

This was overall a really goo book that I recommend to a lot of people, some reasons why I recommend it are. It keeps your attention on the book for a lot of the book. It also gives a lot of sports and drama so if that is what you like in a book it is perfect for you. It is also a very easy read like not hard to read or understand in any of the book. It is also not at all predictable because at the end of the book they loose and J.Y gets traded so it is not like most movies how they always win so it is very interesting when they loose at the end. It is also easy to connect with cause he lives like a normal teen ager he has friend and plays sports so it is easy to connect with too.

[Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jalen is a 14 year old boy that plays baseball. However, unlike other 14 year old baseball players, he is famous for saving a famous baseball players career. He has an uncanny power were he knows what pitch the pitcher is throwing before it is thrown.

Typical life as a 14 year old is hard enough. The stresses of baseball, school, and friends are enough to overwhelm anyone. However, none of those things compare to having your mom leave you when you are just a baby. It actually makes normal life seem like a cakewalk. Add to that, a magic reappearance by that same mom 13 years later, and it sounds like an absolute recipe for disaster. Although he is only 14, he is trying to use is amazing talent to go pro in baseball. He is trying to do the impossible while still trying to balance the stress of normal life and his mom being back.Although he is only 14, he is trying to use is amazing talent to go pro in baseball. He is trying to do the impossible while still trying to balance the stress of normal life and his mom being back.Like all things worth doing in life, there are other good players that want the same thing as Jalen and hope to take his spot. Add to this that his mom has a boyfriend that makes Jalen mad. Although not a bad guy, he wants to see his dad and mom together, but his mom’s new man stands in his way.

If the reader pays close enough attention, they just might realize that no matter what life throws at you if a person stands strong they can find success in some way or another.

Sadly, standing strong isn’t always something that everyone is cut out to do. Not to mention, success can look and mean something very different than originally imagined. Sometimes, success, just means surviving and moving on to the next thing.

[Allie Bayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s probably four stars if I put myself in the appropriate audience’s shoes, and the series is still good! But… 2 stars is the “real” rating. I was so disappointed in the lackluster ending here. JY goes through ALL that, just to then agree to a trade and abandon the conflict with Fox? No way. Jalen’s primary internal conflict goes away like THAT and his mom and dad are BFF with ~3 pages remaining? Um… anticlimactic. The Rockets/Chris/(that shiiiiitty Coach) conflict becomes nonexistent?!? Boring. Every single conflict (and there were a ton) was very magically and simply resolved or disappeared entirely. These kids went through all of those insane and unbelievable hoops for it to then seemingly all kinda… remain unresolved and/or be for nothing. I guess everyone is just moving to Atlanta and baseball prodigy boarding school and… yay?! It’s a middle grade, sure, but the “happily ever after” here 1) wasn’t super happy, but 2) was still unbelievable and wild. Solid series; lame ending.

[Kai]

I liked this book because it is a sports book and it's really entertaining. I would recommend this book because people who like sports this would be a perfect fit.
Spoilers: The book starts where the second book left off. Jaden is still helping JY but the owner of the Yankees is caching on so JY let's Jaden focus on baseball. Then something bad happens. JY gets traded to the Braves. But there is good news too. Jaden's dad's restaurant is growing rapidly. They go to this huge tournament and play the number 1 team in the county. If you want to know how it goes read the book!

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this audio with my 14 year old son. It was a fun baseball story. It got kind of unrealistic in places compared with the first two books, but it was a good way to fill our long car ride.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast paced baseball story. Jalen and his team go up against a lot of top notch teams to try and win. They do well. Action all the way! A good one!

[Trent W]

It was a very good book, kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat. Very well written.

[Gianni Farina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Book

[Cameron Tremblay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how the series was happily ended.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good conclusion to the series.