Bert Wilson's Fadeaway Ball

An early 20th-century baseball novel that understands the game is won between the ears as much as on the field. The story opens mid-season as the Giants and Cubs battle for the National League championship, a controversial call igniting the stands and revealing to young pitcher Bert Wilson that baseball is as much about quick thinking as throwing heat. Duffield traces Bert's journey from observer to college athlete, showing how a pitcher's real competition is often his own psychology. The fadeaway pitch becomes both literal technique and metaphor for the way life delivers unexpected curves. This is period sports fiction that treats its subject with genuine intelligence, exploring how strategy, nerves, and friendship interweave into the fabric of the game. For readers who love baseball's golden age and anyone who understands that sports stories are really about becoming who you're meant to be.