The Vitaman Effect: A Baseball Novel

by Art Tirrell

Big Jim Stronge - His father said he'd be the best pitcher ever. His mother believed he would take his place in the family line of concert pianists. After nineteen years in the majors, most ballplayers would consider themselves successful, but Jim Stronge doesn't. His choice of baseball over music haunts him. He's forty-one, and he still hasn't done what he always believed he would; win thirty games in a season and be remembered as the best pitcher ever. When the Yankees cut him, it seems like the end. All that remains of the dream is a scrap of paper on which his old coach writes the words, Vigil T. Mann, Sunshine, Alabama . The Vitaman Effect is a baseball story, but it's really about the spirits of the air, and the way we struggle to find our way in a world almost devoid of belief. As Vigil T. Mann says, - Sometimes things don go the way they should. That?s when you got to stop aimin, throw the ball and let the spirits take it from there.

302 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 21, 2008

Reviews

[D.E. Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my two favorite sports novels. The Vitaman Effect is a spooky pitch, and the hero of the story, a pitcher, is also a classically trained pianist that can sight read some crazy music. (I actually looked up and tried to play Mephisto's Waltz which is featured in a couple of scenes).

Love this story.