Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Black Rose Writing, and Morris Hoffman for the advanced reader copy of the book. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Pinch Hitting was a hard book for me to get through. I’m not exactly sure why. My only thought as to why was that it was very disjointed, shifting around in time and in stories. Pinch Hitting is actually two very different stories that intertwine, and thanks to a great epilogue, I walked away not sure which story was “the real one.”

On one hand, we have the story of Harold Fungo. Harold had an isolated existence, living with his mother until her death in a fire that also left him homeless. He’s taken under the wing of the firemen who arrive to fight the fire. One thing leads to another and he’s soon a janitor at the local Double-A Minor League ballpark. The grounds crew asks him to come try to hit a ball one day, and it’s soon discovered just how great of a hitter Harold is.

On the other hand, we meet Joe Skelton. Joe is an average guy of no particular importance, just living his life in northeast Colorado with his wife, Kathy, and dog, Soot. One day Joe starts sneezing uncontrollably and is soon talking in his sleep, telling the story of Harold Fungo. Kathy writes down what he says since he has no recollection of the story the next morning. They visit a doctor, and although they manage to stop the sneezing, he’s still talking in his sleep. A neurologist in Denver delivers the bad news that Joe has a brain tumor.

The book jumps around between Harold’s story and Joe’s story. The reader is led to believe that we are getting the story of Harold, the minor league sensation as written by Joe as a byproduct of the tumor. Harold never misses a pitch, no matter where it’s thrown. He’s setting records in the minor leagues and grabs the attention of the Cincinnati Reds, who want to bring him up to the major leagues. Harold really doesn’t want to leave the only home he knows and the people he cares about.

Although centering around baseball, there are lots of other details about Harold’s life thrown in during his section. We learn about his youth and the people of the town he lives in. The introduction to each chapter reads like a local newspaper reporting on Harold’s success as well as the team in general. It’s a bit quirky, with many of the promotional events mentioned that were once used to boost attendance. In Joe’s sections, it’s not just about his life now, but also the background that led him to this point. We hear about losing one of his best friends growing up to a murder and how the boy’s mother single-mindedly kept after the police in Philadelphia to solve the crime. Joe joins the Navy and is at Pearl Harbor when it is attacked in 1941.

The details create full characters and keep the book interesting. At times during the Joe sections, I wanted to get back to Harold. However, near the end of the book I wanted more about Joe and teared up when the inevitable happened. I didn’t understand exactly where the book was going for most of the time I was reading, but the ending is very well done especially the epilogue.

Pinch Hitting is about more than just baseball, so if that’s a turnoff for you, don’t worry. There’s a lot in this book that is compelling and fun even for someone who’s not a fan of the game. If you’re looking for a book that’s pure baseball, the other stories will distract you quite a bit. I’d call this mostly a baseball fairy-tale in the style of The Natural, but the story outside of baseball keeps it from being a real baseball book. It captures a time when things were very different and does so very well.

My boyfriend plays baseball and reading about it was interesting, but I’m not fully in love with the sport. It was a good book however, and greatly written for something that, for me, usually seems boring.

Well-written book with interesting characters, but not enough baseball for me. To take its place among classics, a baseball story needs less of the small town stuff and more on-field drama.

I think this was a good book. I loved the development and journey of these characters and seeing how they perceived and handled the situations. I think this is a good case of character study and following the development of the characters to see how they grow and learn. I love books about baseball and this was such a great read and from a perspective that was unique