Review: Another rookie baseball pitcher steps in it
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 2, 2013
In the recently released novelNothing Downby Mike Reuther, phenom rookie pitcher Homer Newbody of the New York Yankees finds himself embroiled in controversy when he innocently declares to the media that he'd play for free. Now, in A PITCH FOR JUSTICE by Harold Kasselman, it's the hotly contested 2015 pennant race and the bitter rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets, meet in a three-game series. During the last game, rookie wonder-boy fastballer Timothy Charles of the Phillies beans a Mets batter, apparently in retaliation for incidents of intimidation by the New York club earlier in the series that the Philadelphia manager can't shrug off. In any case, the hit batsman, Kenny Layton, is so severely head-injured that he dies the next day.Charles is indicted for murder and taken to trial.Such a case has never been tried in real life to the best of my knowledge, though any past or present fan of Major League Baseball has perhaps speculated on the justice or potential outcome of such. (I myself haven't been a fan since the days of my heroes, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. However, I don't recall concerning myself much with the ethics of a bean ball. But, I get it.) In any case, the author, a self-admitted MLB fan, has taken this flight of fantasy in a courtroom procedural tale with a baseball backstop. Perhaps somewhere out there a similar novel is taking shape around a fatal helmet-to-helmet hit in the NFL.First off, let's remove from the equation any thought that Kasselman was attempting some Grisham-like legal thriller. If he was, he failed miserably. But I don't believe that was his intent. Rather, Harold has written a what-if morality play out of a deep love for the game that he hopes will cause fellow fans to pause and reflect. That said, those who don't follow pro baseball will likely not get past the first few pages (just as I wouldn't even crack open a novel about basketball or golf); it's a niche audience.My only major quarrel with the story is that the author included a couple of subplots that provided virtually nothing in the way of added value but simply padded the length of the book. For me, the most egregiously worthless of the two revolved around the love life of the chief prosecutor in the case. It got to the point that I just wanted to skip over those sections devoted to that sidebar.The nature of the story also precludes there being significant heroes or villains, so don't expect any. Rather, all of the characters seemed like average citizens across the social spectrum caught up in a unique situation.I'm awarding an above-average four stars not because A PITCH FOR JUSTICE is particularly riveting, because it isn't, but rather because I think Kasselman achieved what he intended to do in as best a way as he could. And when next you witness a bean ball or even a close brush-back pitch, I think this cautionary tale will come to mind.