The Might Have Been

January 16, 2012
Lifelong obsession is hauntingly portrayed in this winning debut novel tracing the life of a baseball player who only wants to play the game. When minor league ballplayer Edward Everett Yates finally gets his shot at the majors, his outing is marred by injury. His resulting forced retirement from baseball opens up a new future filled with love, a family, and a steady career as a salesman working with his uncle—if only he can give up his passion for the game. Schuster displays his deep knowledge of the minutiae of baseball as both game and business while sensitively addressing the regrets and self-doubt of a man torn between his devotion to a sport and his attraction to a conventional life with women, ranging from his high school friend Connie to his minor league sweetheart, Julie. Edward Everett’s life is eventually narrowed by chance and his own choices to a final opportunity as coach of a struggling minor league team. This moving tale will engage even nonbaseball fans as Schuster examines, without succumbing to sentiment or an easy resolution, the cost of chasing a dream. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM.

Starred review from February 1, 2012
An engrossing yarn about a man and his love of baseball. Edward Everett Yates shows promise as a young ballplayer in the minor leagues. But can he make it to the Major Leagues? Perhaps talent is just one of the factors, although "Edward Everett" might make a marginal big leaguer at best. One day he gets to play for the Saint Louis Cardinals in a rain-soaked game. He's having a good day until he leaps for a fly ball and changes the direction of his life in an instant. Face it, he is never going to be a Babe Ruth, but God knows he loves the game. For other young men, baseball is a phase of life, a skin they shed before going on to lives as truck drivers, salesmen or lawyers. But Edward Everett can never seem to leave the game for long, and after a brief stint as a flour salesman, he becomes manager of a single-A ball club. He is decent toward women, but his constant travel and assorted shortcomings make stable relationships tough. Nothing about his life's arc screams "superstar," but he is a usually considerate man whose character shows through in tough situations, like the suicide of one of his players. Throughout the novel, he tentatively tries to learn about a child--does he have a son?--who stays just barely out of his reach. Schuster paints in vivid detail the crappy ballparks and sometimes desperate wannabes who cannot admit that they should just move on from baseball. This is a terrific story that goes beyond the sport and deals with promise and aspirations, dreams and disappointments. No little boy would fantasize about being the next Edward Everett Yates, but readers will root for him. Like so many of us, he is an ordinary, flawed human being whose life is full of might-have-beens. Never mind whether you are a baseball fan. This is a damn fine read.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.