Baseball Fiction

Baseball Magic is a short fiction collection of eleven original baseball stories by Jay Martin. Believing baseball to be an almost sacred event, author Jay Martin explores the game with a reverence for history, humor, wonder, joy, and occasionally with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Grab a beer and a hot dog with mustard and onions. Settle into your favorite armchair and open these pages for a provocative, entertaining read.

When a cosmic anomaly disrupts the championship baseball game between Earth and Mars, reclusive trillionair Xan Ruiz-Harlow takes the bold step of shifting the contest into an artificial "Infinite Plane" existing outside of normal space-time. Now the elite players of the Earth Raptors and Mars Thunderbolts must adapt to playing in a dimension where the laws of physics are constantly warped in bizarre ways - balls defying gravity, trajectories altering inexplicably, and the very fabric of reality threatening to unravel with each pitch. As the greatest stars from both worlds employ innovative...

When a scandal erupts, threatening Easton’s chance to play in the majors, the hot baseball billionaire relies on the witty sorority girl back home to bail him out in this new standalone romance. Valentina is used to fixing laptops and taking the extra jobs no one wants. She’s trying to find her place after her college volleyball dreams shatter. A romance with Easton Kentwell is not on her radar. She’s more into his stats—for her, it’s all love of the game. Not love of the pitcher. She’s beyond wary of a long-distance fling and is tired of having her heart tossed around as if it ...

Jerry B. Jenkins, the author of Hometown Legend and co-author of the Left Behind series, returns with the story of a boy who has been bestowed a gift that presents the challenge of a lifetime, and of the mother determined to help him become The Youngest Hero.

Levi and John Troyer are twins, but they are complete opposites. John is a hard worker who puts faith, their father, and the family farm before everything else in his life. Levi’s total focus is baseball. Using a fence post for a bat, he often shirks his responsibilities around the farm, opting for a game of ball instead. When he’s not playing his favorite sport, he’s trying to win the heart of pretty Hannah Weaver, otherwise known as the “only Amish girl who can’t cook.” But when sports talent scout Phil Watson discovers Levi and his incredible pitching arm and offers him a ...

In "one of the funniest and most heartfelt baseball stories in recent memory" (Publishers Weekly), Howard Frank Mosher returns to Kingdom Common, Vermont, to spin a touching coming-of-age tale in an America that has almost disappeared. From this remote village, noted for its fervent devotion to the Red Sox, comes Ethan “E. A.” Allen, a young man with a chance to change baseball history. Homeschooled, fatherless, and living on the wrong side of the tracks, E. A. is haunted by a dark mystery in his family’s past until a drifter named Teddy arrives in his life, determined to teach E. A. everything he knows about baseball.

Ivy-covered walls--they're the most famous part of the Chicago Cubs' historic ballpark, Wrigley Field. Mike and Kate can't wait to get down on the field to see the ivy for themselves. But when they do, they're horrified to discover patches of the ivy have been ripped away! Who would want to sabotage the stadium? Is it someone trying to curse the Cubs? Or is the rumor of a treasure hidden under the ivy tempting greedy fans? The Wrigley Riddle includes a fun fact page about Chicago's Wrigley Field.

Mike and Kate are in for an extra special treat! Two hometown baseball teams in one city! A Subway Series is when the New York Mets play the New York Yankees, and Mike and Kate can't wait to watch all the action! But someone is playing pranks at both ballparks! And when Mike and Kate hear mysterious mumblings at the famous Whispering Gallery at Grand Central Terminal, they just might be able to catch the culprit before the series ends.

There's nothing eight-year-old twins Zach and Zoe Walker love more than playing sports and solving mysteries. And when those two worlds collide...well, it doesn't get any better than that. In the opening installments of the Zach and Zoe Mysteries, best-selling author Mike Lupica begins a series for a new and younger audience, introducing listeners to a sports-loving detective duo who can swing for the fences and catch the culprit in one fell swoop.

Get ready for an adrenaline-packed adventure with fourteen-year-old Zane Mitchell! After a tough game with his new baseball team, Zane returns home to find his mom gone and a mysterious Federal Agent at his door. That's just the beginning of this wild ride, though. One of his teammates is a rogue hacker on a mission to uncover an explosive government secret, and Zane is the only one who can stop them.

Eddy Pareti is a street-smart kid who does things his own way. He ditches school and dodges duties at the family’s tavern, Ernie’s Bleachers (now Murphy’s Bleachers), which is just across from Wrigley Field. World War II is ending, the Cubs are heading to the World Series, and Eddy sneaks into games and brushes up against baseball legends, including stars of the Negro League. From behind his family’s bar, Eddy pours beer for soldiers, ball players, and rodeo clowns, runs bets for a bookie who wants him to shoot a deadbeat gambler and—hold your horses—crashes a stagecoach on State Street.

Art therapist Emrys Finnegan thought she'd left the fast-paced world of Public Relations behind when her old boss calls to offer her one last job. And it pays the kind of money that could change Emrys' life forever. There's only one catch. She'd be working for disgraced major league baseball superstar Tanner Courtenay. And he’s a legendary PR nightmare, a violent and unstable athlete with a rap sheet a mile long. Emrys has no choice but to grit her teeth and put up with Tanner's contemptuous treatment and malicious cruelty. But when one day he goes too far, everything changes.

You Know Me, Al is a classic of baseball, the game and the community. Jack Keefe, one of literature's great characters, is talented, brash, and conceited. Self-assured and imperceptive, impervious to both advice and sarcasm, Keefe rises to the heights, but his inability to learn makes for his undoing. Through a series of letters from this bush-league pitcher to his not-quite-anonymous friend Al, Lardner maintains a balance between the funny and the moving, the pathetic and the glorious.

Ryder Huntington was my first and only broken heart. I promised no one would tear me up like his sweet words and broken promises ever again. I didn't expect the first time I landed a high-paying interior design job for an MLB player would be the day we met again. And I certainly didn't expect Ryder would bring with him cops, handcuffs, and words like "breaking and entering." Now he wants to make up for the misunderstanding. Well, that ship has sailed, I think.

I'm nobody's baby daddy. I don't care how many stunning women throw themselves at me, looking to turn one hot night into an 18-year paycheck. I've got way too much on the line to throw it away for one night of pleasure. Ball is life, and basketball is my first priority. I've got a championship to win. But when I see that familiar face shaking her pom-poms on the sidelines, I'm transported back to childhood, back to the days before a fiery plane crash ripped us apart, forcing us to grow up overnight.

From his first day at boarding school, Toyo Shimada sees how upperclassmen make a sport out of terrorizing the first-years. Still, he's taken aback when the seniors keep him from trying out for the baseball team, especially after he sees their current shortstop. Toyo isn't afraid to prove himself; He's more troubled by his uncle's recent suicide. Although Uncle Koji's defiant death was supposedly heroic, it has made Toyo question many things about his family's samurai background.

The A-team takes A-Town! Mike and Kate are in Atlanta, where Hammerin' Hank hit his legendary 715th home run. But Hank's historic bat and ball, which he used to break Babe Ruth's record, have been stolen! Good thing Mike and Kate are sleuthing pros. Can the cousins track down Hank Aaron's missing treasurs...before it's gone forever?

Growing up the youngest of seven children in Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente had a talent for baseball. His incredible skill soon got him drafted into the big leagues, where he spent 18 seasons playing right field for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Who Was Roberto Clemente? tells the story of this remarkable athlete: A 12-time All-Star, a World Series MVP, and the first Latin American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Two weeks, that was how long he gave me to decide. I could go home, and everything would go back to normal, whatever that was, or I could suffer the consequences of not returning. My heart was filled with disgust and hurt, as I drove away from him and back toward the safety of my brother's house. Who was that man? Had he been that way when I'd married him? If so, how had I missed it? I wasn't going back, there was no way. I just had to figure out what it was that I was going to do. Those two weeks flew by, and just as promised, there were consequences, the kind that would change my life ...

How could my enemy, the one who'd tortured me for years, end up being the very same woman that felt so good beneath me? I swore it wasn't going to make a difference. I was going to get the job I'd worked so hard for, and I was going to take her down in the process. There was only one problem. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get her cocky, beautiful mouth out of my mind. I couldn't help seeing her sexy body every time I closed my eyes. I needed to get my head in the game. It was either her or me. It couldn't be both of us. Then it happened, we were brought together again. Those same ...