Eyes on the Ball

It's 1998, closing in on 1999. Austin Orr wants to be a pro baseball player more than anything in the world. Too bad he's 56 lbs. and 4'6" as he starts 9th grade. Still, he thinks he can pull it off if he'd just grow-he's started-and get some help.

Ted Williams wants nothing more than to hit one more time in Fenway. Too bad he's half blind, can hardly walk, and is confined to a nursing home with his son controlling who he can visit or even talk to. Even so, he's determined to stand at home plate one more time before he goes to that great ballpark in the sky.

When these two meet, they strike up an unlikely friendship, and soon Austin has convinced Ted to coach him for spring baseball tryouts. Over the next several months, Austin experiences the angst of a teenage crush; the daily ebb and flow of self-confidence, riding as it does during that time in life on the events of the day; and the heartbreak and hope that is part of every family.

Eyes on the Ball takes familiar problems and infuses them with a magical twist that comes from putting an American hero in the life of an everyday but not-so-ordinary kid. This is a contemporary coming-of-age novel, a many-layered story, illustrating the impossibility of living up to other people's expectations and the absolute necessity of living up to your own, and how new beginnings are possible from every ending, if only you believe.

A heartwarming--sometimes humorous, sometimes gripping-story that is a gem for all ages, and for everyone who has ever tried to be more than it seemed they could be.