HEART OF A CHAMPION

From the author of On the Devil's Court (1989), another story in which sports and life intertwine. Jimmy Winter, his eyes fixed on the major leagues, accepts his father's harsh coaching as the only way to develop that special edge. Develop it he does, though their personal relationship founders on the rocks of his father's alcoholism. Jimmy fires up new friend Seth with the love of baseball, and the two play through Little League, Babe Ruth League and into high school. Seth is competent but not gifted, though he discovers that the benefits of hard work and concentration on the field carry over to school. His admiration for Jimmy's potential becomes mixed with more complex feelings when he learns that his friend is drinking and cutting class. After that revelation, the story moves with heavy inevitability: the varsity team puts together a championship season, but Jimmy kills himself in a car accident just before the clincher. Covering well worked thematic territory, Deuker offers readers few surprises in this outing, but the baseball action is believable and the contrasts between several sets of characters are thoughtfully explored. (Fiction. 12-14)