Blockade Billy

April 5, 2010
The first 10,000 copies of Stephen King's baseball novella include a reproduction of the only known baseball card of Billy Blakely, the story's hero.
Blockade Billy
Stephen King
. Cemetery Dance
( www.cemeterydance.com
), $25 (112p) ISBN 978-1-58767-228-6

A quirky baseball player with a past shrouded in secrecy is the tragic hero of this macabre tale from the dark side of the all-American sport. In the voice of George “Granny” Grantham, retired third-base coach of the New Jersey Titans, King (Under the Dome
) recalls the spring of 1957, when Billy Blakely, a catcher called up from the Titans' Iowa farm system, helped to boost the team out of the basement and add some excitement to the national pastime. Billy hits with such power and guards the plate with such determination (hence his eponymous nickname) that teammates are willing to forgive such eccentricities as his frequently addressing himself in the third person, or bloodying runners who collide with him. Of course, these kinks are clues to a shocking pathology that King coaxes out in a narrative steeped so perfectly in the argot of the game and the behavior of its players and fans that readers will willingly suspend their disbelief. As King's fiction goes, this suspenseful short is a deftly executed suicide squeeze, with sharp spikes hoisted high and aimed at the jugular on the slide home.

Stephen King loves baseball and writes a superior novella. Both are in evidence in this unique and fascinating yarn. Blockade Billy was a superstar on the New Jersey Titans in the 1950s. "Mr. King" is visiting George (Granny) Grantham in a nursing home to learn the secret of Billy's talent. Narrator Craig Wasson is superb as the old coach--he sounds much like an old-time baseball announcer on the radio. The ballpark sounds and the use of real names are ideal for a "you are there" sports stadium experience. As Billy, Wasson is credibly weird--he talks to himself and mysteriously hurts players during games. The climax is perfect King, with the bonus of a sparkling historical sports setting. S.G.B. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Starred review from September 15, 2010

King, a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan, takes a break from the supernatural with this highly entertaining novella. Things are not going well for the Newark Titans in 1957, until they turn in desperation to minor league catcher Billy Blakely, who proves to be both an excellent fielder and a timely hitter. This being a King tale, the Titans' success is not without some unexpected turns. In the tradition of Robert Coover's The Universal Baseball Association and Jerome Charyn's The Seventh Babe, Blockade Billy is infused with colorful details of the game. Actor Craig Wasson sounds delightfully grumpy as the Titans' avuncular third-base coach, comically raising his voice to convey displeasure with the post-1957 world. All fans of King's, baseball, and perfectly performed audiobooks will be delighted. [Includes the bonus story "Morality," read by Mare Winningham; the Scribner hc was described as a "read-at-one-gulp tale," LJ Xpress Reviews, 4/30/10.--Ed.]--Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. Lib.

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