Blockade Billy
by Stephen King
There’s not enough book reviews on this blog though who has the time right? I don’t want people to think I don’t read I just never feel the need to review any of it, because it’s never anything recent. This came out last April coinciding with baseball opening day and being that I enjoy both baseball and the Master of the Macabre, I figured it was one not to be missed.
For those who don’t know, Stephen King is a big fan of the American Pastime, in particular the Boston Red Sox. He can often be seen attending both home and away games and has often incorporated nods to his Beantown boys in his novels. So there’s plenty of references of Boston in his latest novella but this work is based around a fictional team, with one very mysterious player.
Told from the perspective of an elderly former third base coach/equipment manager, Blockade Billy depicts the New Jersey Titans in their 1957 season following the acquiring of their new catcher William “Blockade” Billy a seemingly soft spoken simpleton but with immense skills behind the plate offensively and of course defensively, aggressively blocking home from opposing runners. Though as time goes on and the team begins to suffer certain highs and lows, word soon starts to surface that there is something off about that Billy, something dark.
What I enjoyed about this short, maybe even a little too short tale is that it is pure baseball. Most of if not all of the novel takes place during game-time and King excels at making these moments exciting and suspenseful. He obviously has much love for the sport and has a lot to say about it. The downside is actually the conclusion, in that this big mystery is built up and then answered with only a mildly satisfying finale. All I’ll say is that it’s not supernatural, just kind of dark.
After the story is an additional short story called “Morality” though it’s nothing to rave about and was probably something rotting away in one of King’s jam packed file cabinets somewhere. So Blockade Billy is a mildly enjoyable novel but hardly as compelling when compared to most of his work. Though it has got me back into King, I think I’ll finally check out “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” another story with some baseball tie-ins. Anyways I’ll catch you on the flip side, Otteni out.
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