The administration looks the other way until he humiliates Celeste Honor, the class tease. Josh gets benched and his misdeed costs the team its playoff chance, but he blazes back for baseball season as star pitcher. Josh is as astonishing on the diamond as he is on the gridiron, and finals look like a sure thing until he sexually assaults classmate Monica Robey, a beautiful, opinionated academic star who publicly ridicules John's athleticism. She could have let him have his moment. Narrator Ryan Ward, Josh's catcher and apologist, finally blows the whistle on him, but as the team's season evaporates, Josh is merely slapped with forty hours of community service and finishes the year by signing with the Colorado Rockies .
Bats crack, helmets clash, nets swish, and the rivalries are rabid and infectious.
Bush, Reviewer On the Devil's Court. Hoy Street, 1993. Painting the Black. Houghton Mifflin, 1997. This page was last updated on September 1, 1997.