Fathers, Sons, and the Holy Ghosts of Baseball

De: Tommy Murray

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Time often slows and even stops in the small town of Cottage Park, Iowa. In fact, time is best measured not by the hands of a clock but by the innings of a baseball game. Praying and playing baseball are two of the town's primary activities. Actually, they are one in the same in a town where baseball is a religion. Still, time does eventually flow on. Much like the Des Moines River just outside Cottage Park, time leads to the site of the 1974 Iowa high school baseball tournament. Cottage Park's Holy Trinity High School has never won the Finals. The team's three elderly coaches vow to at last anoint themselves champions before they retire. For the players, the road to the Finals is a confirmation by fire--a rite of passage before they must face adulthood. Fathers, sons, and the holy ghosts of baseball join together in the quest for the Finals. Along this journey, young and old alike ultimately learn you must sacrifice before you can gain and sometimes you must lose before you can win. From Tommy Murray: My story was written before I was born, in the death of my namesake, my Uncle Tommy Murray who was born and raised in the only place he ever wanted to live, a mighty small town--Bancroft, Iowa. Fathers, Sons, and the Holy Ghosts of Baseball is dedicated to my Uncle Tommy and the other men in my life who taught me about baseball, love, life, and death: my grandfathers, Joe McTigue and Art Murray; and my father, John Murray. Thank you to my uncle Dennis Pat McTigue, who gave his very all for the financing of this novel. All are residents of Bancroft, which I call Cottage Park. They all remain active in the baseball community there. If you visit Bancroft's Memorial Park at any time of day or night I'm certain you'll see them. They're all cool guys. This was not an easy story to tell. Though the words were written on my heart, it took me from 1973 until 2017 to extract them from each atria and ventricle to display them in these various publishing formats. You really need to know and read this story if you're from a small town, or Iowa, never got to play on a championship team, or a Catholic that struggles with their faith, or love a father or grandfather that you struggled to understand.