The Boy Who Saved Baseball

benboy - The Boy who saved baseball was written by John H. Ritter and was first published in 2003. This book is about a town who can never agree on anything, and they want to tear down a baseball field. There are boys who love baseball and want to keep the field. The town decides to have a baseball game to decide who should get to keep the field.My opinion on this book is definitely that it is a good book and in the top 20 I have ever read. It is a fantastic book with a great storyline and I would definitely read another book just like it.This genre is realistic fiction because there really could be a town that can’t agree on anything and there could have been a baseball field they wanted to tear down and some boys won’t let them. It all could have really happened but it didn’t so therefore it is realistic fiction. An audience that would enjoy this book would be somebody that loves sports or baseball especially. They would like this book because the main subject matter is about baseball and if you like sports baseball is one of the originals! An internal conflict in this book was when Tom was torn as to what he should do because his town/Doc want to sell the baseball field. He internally has to think what to do, which makes this an internal conflict. An External conflict in this book was when the town played a game to decide what they were going to do with the field. This was an external conflict because they played hands on a game for the field.

Starred review from May 19, 2003
In Ritter's enthralling third baseball tale (Choosing Up Sides; Over the Wall), developers want to come into quaint Dillontown, nestled among a California mountain range, to plow up the historic baseball field in order to make way for a new diamond—and houses and strip malls as well. When 12-year-old Tom Gallagher goes to visit Doc, the old man who owns the land, he raises an issue that gets the man to thinking: "Is it new facilities that would help this town the most, or a new spirit?" So Doc decides to let a single game of baseball determine how his land will be used. Tom finds himself working to get a small, poorly trained group of players ready for the big day. Some unlikely help arrives in the form of Cruz de la Cruz, a mysterious boy who literally rides into town (on horseback) to gear up for the pivotal game and to seek out Dante Del Gato, the legendary San Diego outfielder who supposedly possesses the "Secret of Hitting" (19 hits in as many games). Tom's fear of letting down his community mirrors the tale of Del Gato, who abandoned his team just before the World Series and lives like a hermit in the nearby hills. Ritter paints Dillontown as equal parts Mayberry R.F.D. and Twin Peaks (a homeless rapper/poet who talks into a broken cell phone, a beauty salon with the motto "We'll Chop Your Mop 'Til You Say Stop"). The author takes the cosmic view of a local story: Tom not only strives to save a patch of land but the soul of his hometown. Baseball fans will appreciate the lore, but the prose is also at times stunning ("A boy needs to read the earth.... A boy kept distant from the earth is a boy dissatisfied"), in a book filled with memorable moments. Ages 9-13.