Baseball's Greatest Time Travel Novel (1990). If you str looking for a taste of what it's like to play vintage base ball by the 1860's rules, a la the Houston Babies this one is the book you need to read.
Take me out to the ball game!
Take me out with the crowd!
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack!
I don’t care if I never get back!
Let me root, root, root for the home team!
If they don’t win, it’s a shame!
For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out,
At the old ball game!
In Darryl Brock’s exciting to sentimental baseball novel, an unexpected time warp opens up and places 1990 newspaperman Sam Fowler back in 1869 and riding on the same train as the great undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings of that golden year birth of professional baseball. I wouldn’t begin to spoil the two-novel series that unfolds from there, but if you like science fiction, baseball, history, intrigue, and romantic adventure – all rolled into one package – these two works by Darryl Brock are definitely for you. The sequel, “Two in the Field,” was published in 2002 and, unlike many follow-up novels, this one does not disappoint. It simply amplifies the action and depth of character involved in the life of a man who was born in the 20th century to really come of age in the late 1800s.
"Two in the Field" (2002) picks up where Darryl Brock's first novel leaves off without missing a broken heart beat and it carries new action of good versus evil from the east coast to a thrilling conclusion in the American West of 1875. I simply cannot speak to which time zone the story concludes because that information would be a spoiler.
Darryl Brock, Author.
Both books are still available for immediate delivery through Amazon, and probably Barnes & Noble and E-Bay too. I don’t often boost books, but these I do. They each were page turners for me, the kind of books that leave you feeling that you are saying good-bye to old friends when they conclude..
Thank you, Sam Fowler, Colm, Caitlyn and Tim O’Neill, Mark Twain, Andy Leonard, Asa Brainard, George and Harry Wright, Johnny, Linc, Goose, President Grant, George Armstrong Custer, and Crazy Horse. – It’s been a great ride.
Thank you, too, author Darryl Brock, for the fine research you did on a multiplicity of items that made Sam Fowler’s trip back in time so utterly believable. The sights, and sounds, and smoke stack smells of 1869 Cincinnati will be with your readers forever as brilliant background to the story your work unfolds. Thank you for giving your plot line the very best shot at credibility.
And thank you, finally, for giving everyone who has ever wondered about the joy of vintage base ball action from the 19th century as it now plays again in the 21st as a little taste of what the buzz was all about.
If you would like a first person taste of vintage base ball, as played by basically the same 1860’s rules that governed the game in Brock’s novels, follow the Houston Babies next Saturday, March 31st, to Sealy, Texas for the big spring festival and vintage ball tournament. Complete info is available through the following link. They also provide a phone number for your additional questions.
http://www.sealynews.com/news/article_d73c0838-632e-11e1-9804-001871e3ce6c.html
Sealy, Texas is located about 50 miles west of Houston on I-10. Come join us, if possible,
Tags: Darryl Brock, If I Never Get Back, time travel, Two in the Field, Vintage Base Ball
The Pecan Park Eagle 
May 17, 2015 at 7:07 pm |
Just picked up and read both of these. I think If I Never Get Back may be my all-time favorite time travel story–just an astonishing amount of the right kind of detail to pull you in and make you feel like you’re there.
But here’s my question: Sam’s original quilt: Did Cait make that? And is she one of his ancestors? I gotta admit, I blew through the two books so fast I never quite figured that out.