Sophomore Campaign

April 1, 2012
Ridiculously mannered prose strikes out this ambitious tale of a 1949 minor-league baseball team with an autistic star hurler and a courageous black catcher. "This was home. The ballpark. The one place in the world that mattered. The one place in the world that did not morph in the tumult of the universe." Evidently styling himself the next Damon Runyon, Nappi follows up The Legend of Mickey Tussler (2008; made into the 2011 TV film A Mile in His Shoes) with more diamond action between the Brewers and archrival Rangers. This is highlighted by the return of Mickey, the "Baby Bazooka," and the arrival of slugging catcher Lester Sledge from the Negro Leagues. Mining the thesaurus for alternatives to the N-word, the author subjects Sledge to a hail of "ulcerous screams" and "festering odium" from "yard ape" to "jigaboo." Not even repeated attacks from local members of the KKK prevent him from emerging "like a powerful pupa" to shine on the field. Meanwhile, as Mickey mows opposing batters down, his mother and Brewers manager Arthur "Murph" Murphy consummate their relationship (."..her entire lifetime had been communicated to him through her soft, wet lips"). As in the opener, Rangers' chicanery again leads to a climactic Brewers defeat, but a call to the Show for Murph, Mickey and Lester tacks on an upbeat ending. Few young readers will get that far, or care much. (Historical fiction. 13-18)

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July 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-This novel set in 1949 Milwaukee continues the story of an autistic youth with phenomenal baseball skills. Having escaped the clutches of his evil father in The Legend of Mickey Tussler (St. Martin's, 2009), Mickey has come under the protection of his manager, Arthur Murphy, who has fallen in love with Mickey's mother. Arthur woos and marries her, and the newly formed family lives together in relative happiness, although Mickey's condition continues to draw the taunts of opposing players and fans. Murph's job security is also an issue due to the unexplained animosity of the team owner, the nefarious Warren Dennison. Further complications arise when, at Murph's insistence, the team signs a Negro League star, Lester Sledge. Opposition to Lester's presence culminates in an attempted lynching by the local branch of the KKK. Several of Lester's teammates arrive on the scene at the last minute to rescue him, even as another teammate is unmasked as one of the miscreants. The complicity of a corrupt sheriff is documented on a recording device he had been given as a present, but Murph agrees to a deal in which the sheriff will admit guilt and testify as to the involvement of an opposing manager-but only if Murph's team wins the championship game. If they lose, he will surrender the tape to the sheriff. (No, it makes no sense at all.) The outlandish and difficult-to-follow plot is at times rendered almost incomprehensible by tortured syntax and grandiloquent prose. It is difficult to imagine any reader getting past the first few pages of this earnest but regrettable effort.-Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT

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