by Joe Schuster
At eight o’clock, he called a car to pick him up to take him to the ballpark, and when he reached it, there were already forty boys there, some as young as thirteen, none older than eighteen, all serious and eager, playing catch before any of the coaches had to tell them to do so. Some of their fathers were there as well, sitting in the shade of the roof over the grandstand, and when Edward Everett walked onto the field, the ten boys the club had assigned to him for the day gathered around him, their fathers leaning forward in the stands, clasping their hands on the seat backs in front of them, all of them waiting for Edward Everett to tell them something that would change their lives forever.
For Kathleen and my children—Joe, Dan, Veronica, Liz, and Bob … and for Joe V.
Acknowledgments
I owe more than I can express to Amanda Urban for her advocacy and Jennifer Smith for her smart editorial guidance, and to Ken Cook and Margot Livesey, who read drafts of this novel and whose insightful criticism helped shape it. This book would not exist without the generosity of all of them. Thanks also to those who encouraged me, especially Debra Carpenter, Tony DiMartino, John Eschen, Eileen Solomon, Kirk Swearingen, and my parents and brothers and sisters. Thank you, as well, to Webster University for time to work on this during parts of two sabbaticals. Much of my understanding of a life in baseball came from interviews I did for a number of articles I wrote about ballplayers whose major league careers lasted less than a full season, and I am grateful to the editors who assigned those articles, especially David Levine and Steve Zesch, and to the many players I interviewed for them, especially Rich Beck, Doug Clarey, Chip Coulter, Jeff Doyle, Ed Phillips, Herman (Ham) Schultehenrich, Bill Southworth and Robert Slaybaugh, whose tragic injury in a spring training game kept him from ever appearing in the major leagues. I also owe a debt to every writing teacher who has graced my life, especially, in chronological order, Thomas Hoobler, Carl Smith, Shannon Ravenel, Jean Thompson and Richard Russo.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph M. Schuster lives near St. Louis, Missouri, and teaches at Webster University. His short fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review, and The Missouri Review, among other journals. He is married and the father of five children.
