The Dog Sox
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Fiction. Ray Adams buys his girlfriend, beautiful Ava Belle, a baseball team for her birthday. She loves dogs and baseball. Ray's gift is a broken-down semi-pro team in California's Central Valley, with a 70-year-old Jewish manager who's been in baseball for 50 years and breaks into Yiddish homilies when the going gets tough. He assembles a rag-tag lineup of sheetrockers, farm laborers, wanna-be big leaguers, and a freak submarine pitcher—19-year-old Billy Collins. The only problem is that Billy has a drunken, abusive father who, when he shows up at the ballpark, causes Billy to fall apart. How to get rid of Bucky Collins becomes a primary goal not just for the team's sake, but for Billy's. Rough him up? Pay him off? See that he has an "accident"? With him around, the team and Billy are simply not functional.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While billed as a mystery, this engaging baseball novel from Edgar-finalist Hill (The Lord God Bird) contains only a whiff of crime. When Ray Adams buys a minor league California team, based in the small town of Knights Landing, for his beautiful girlfriend Ava's birthday, he renames it the Dog Sox because Ava gave him a pair of socks with pictures of dogs on them. The team manager, Dutch Goltz, who had a short stint as a pro player, finds a diamond in the rough in the form of pitcher Billy Collins, whose eccentric pitching motion renders him unhittable, at least for a few innings. Bolstered by Billy's arm, the team reaches first place in its league, but the smooth ride hits a few bumps when Billy's abusive father shows up and causes trouble. More intrigue is generated by another hurler, English teacher Otis Bickford, who makes no secret of his interest in Ava. A simple prose style perfectly complements a moving character study centered on Ray and Ava's relationship.
