Fielder’s Choice
by J Mark Hart
4.9 stars – 9 Reviews
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Here’s the set-up:
In 1969 Brad Williams thought baseball might save his life..if he wasn’t shipped off to Vietnam. That he spring he desperately needed a college baseball scholarship to escape a dreary future of working in Birmingham’s gritty steel mills.. Just when things were looking up, violence shattered his neighborhood and tested his conscience. The time came to choose sides. He could keep his dreams if he played it safe.. But should he? An agonizing choice for one so young.
5-Star Amazon Reviews
“Anyone who grew up in the South in the late 60’s amidst the turmoil of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights will find Mark Hart’s book a must read. He has captured both the conflict between being a loyal American and an anti-war activist and the impact of civil rights on the students of the 60’s in an imaginative and compelling way through high school sports and puppy love. Having grown up in Birmingham in the 60’s, I understood the challenges facing his central characters and the different ways they chose to cope with the stresses of the times. I highly recommend this book to anyone who understands what it is like to be facing not only the end of a sports career, but the end of your life.”
“I love the way Mark Hart writes. “Fielder’s Choice” is a gem of a book. I couldn’t stop turning pages once I started reading it and the characters stayed in my consciousness after I finished. The novel is clearly a labor of love, but the author’s attention is fixed on more than the satisfaction of stringing together words in a way that tells his story artfully and well. He knows his subject and he wants his cast of characters to succeed, not only the teenage baseball players who dare to reach beyond their individual comfort zones, but the city of Birmingham itself. Baseball is life’s parallel in this story. As Brad and Robbie’s baseball team struggles to integrate on its way to fight for the state championship, Birmingham is struggling to overcome prejudice and fear in the heated battles to gain civil rights and put an end to brutality in the 1960s. Most Alabamians will find something to stir them in this book, but any reader will recognize the overarching themes of decency and humanity. If you love to read, you should treat yourself to this gem of a book too.”
From The Author
The next year John Lennon sang, “The dream is over.” And it was.
The Sixties movement died. You knew it when the rednecks grew long hair. We didn’t change the world like we thought. But then again, it wasn’t the same world.
Along with the sixties passed the hope for a quick end to the war and more tragedy lay ahead-on the college campuses and in the rice paddies.
Writing Fielder’s Choice brought back so many memories of my upbringing. I was fortunate to have such a strong solid family that could be my sounding board. It was easier to stand up for what you believe. The New South and all that comes with it is a great place to be, a wonderful place to raise a family and enjoy our unique culture. Yet even now, when people move in from out of state and say Birmingham is a good place to live, a good place to raise a family, their kind words always surprise me. I must expect them to say something else, it must be that weight.
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