STRIKE THREE, YOU'RE DEAD

Twelve-year-old Lenny Norbeck thought the contest to win a chance to broadcast one inning of a Phillies game would be fun. But it is murder. Literally.

The Armchair Announcer contest should have been a dream come true for Lenny. He’s “the boy with the golden voice,” who’s always narrating his life: “And Lenny Norbeck puts ANOTHER piece of pepperoni into his mouth. The crowd goes wild! Ahhhh-ahhhh-ahhh!” Maybe becoming a baseball announcer would be his thing. He’s not especially smart or athletic or handsome, but he can do this. And he does. He wins the contest, and on July 29th, he’s in the announcer’s booth. But it all goes downhill quickly. The Phillies’ pitcher collapses on the mound and dies, and Lenny never gets to do any announcing. He does have a mystery to solve, though. Was it a heart attack? Murder? Though the story is too scattered and, at times, implausible to be an effectively developed mystery, it is a fast-paced tale, an ode to the pleasures of the game—the dreams, the disappointments, and the trials and tribulations of being a fan.

An enjoyable baseball story that young fans will follow all the way to the bottom of the ninth.