Throwing Heat

Description

Known for his crazy fastball pitches, Jack has never had a problem striking a batter out. Until now. This season, he's playing in a new league where the distance to the catcher's mitt is a lot greater, and he can't get seem to get into the strike zone. Then a baseball coach at a local college shows Jack some new pitches and tells him about Steve Dalkowski, who never made it out of the minor leagues because he wouldn't throw other pitches. At first Jack doesn't listen to the coach's advice, but with the season on the line, he realizes that the coach was right. Is it too late to change his game plan? In this installment of his Sports Story series, author Fred Bowen shows readers how to battle the ache of disappointment and rise to new challenges. Readers can learn more about pitching phenoms Steve Dalkowski and Sandy Koufax and their Major League Baseball careers in the afterword.

Fred Bowen was a Little Leaguer who loved to read and is still a lifelong sports fanatic. He is the author of the action-packed Fred Bowen Sports Story series, currently totaling more than twenty titles. For thirteen years, Bowen coached kids' baseball and basketball teams. He has also written a weekly sports column for kids in the Washington Post since 2000. He was a lawyer for many years before retiring to become a full-time children's book author.Bowen lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife Peggy Jackson. They have two grown children.

"The prolific Bowen serves up a baseball tale that should appeal equally to middle-grade fans and less-able older readers." -Booklist "Sports-minded readers should find the brisk pacing and simple vocabulary to their liking." -School Library Journal