Whether you believe in fate, the stars, a Supreme Being, or Mr. Coincidence, you can always count on one thing, life will throw you a wicked curveball or two. Billy Bryan has seen his share. A former minor-league catcher for the Washington Senators, Bryan is now a retired high school teacher, widowed with a grown daughter, and "coming to the end of many things." Then a long-forgotten scrapbook stirs memories of a distant past, and beckons him on a reluctant journey to relive his own extraordinary role in history.
In 1947, Bryan is playing winter ball in Cuba, immersing himself in the decadent nightlife of Havana, and dreaming of someday "making it" to the majors. But his future on the diamond is as uncertain as Cuba itself, a country where rumblings of revolution hang in the air like a high fly ball to left. Then one fateful night Bryan witnesses a young student radical named Fidel hurl pitch after amazing pitch. So begins Billy's tug-of-war with destiny, to score a victory for the game he worships, win the heart of the woman he loves, or make his mark in a world racing toward revolution.
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“Wendel makes the most of his premise while soaking plenty of atmosphere
out of his prerevolutionary Havana setting. He gets the baseball right,
too, capturing the Bull Durham–like camaraderie of has-beens and
wannabes struggling to keep their dreams alive—and stay out of the way
of those whose dreams are bigger and much more dangerous.”
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