The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first--and some would say still the best--novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material--the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era--and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable,...

When fourteen-year-old baseball player Hutch feels threatened by the arrival of a new teammate named Darryl, he tries to work through his insecurities about both Darryl and his remote and silent father, who was once a great ballplayer too.

Ben and his friends, the Core Four Plus One, are so excited to play in their town's All-Star Baseball league. But in the first game of the season Ben gets hit by a pitch. It's never happened to him before and it shakes him up. Another player on Ben's team, Justin, is acting really weirdly. Ben has known Justin for a while and they're friendly but he's not one of Ben's closest "boys." Justin is the team's best hitter but his behavior on and off the...

Bus Mercer, shortstop for the Peach Street Mudders, wants desperately to be picked for the county all-star team, but he breaks his parents' rules for riding his new bike, and feelings of guilt affect his game.

Sylvester Coddmyer III, a poor but enthusiastic baseball player, becomes a phenomenal hitter after he meets a mysterious stranger resembling Babe Ruth who offers to help him improve his batting skills.

Voted captain of his baseball team, Jimmie declares himself pitcher, even though Paul is a better pitcher. When the team begins to lose games and his teammates begin to lose confidence in him.

Nate the Great investigates the mysterious disappearance of the purple plastic octopus that his baseball team uses for second base.

Spring training takes a grim turn when sports journalist Kate Henry and a fellow reporter find a local freelancer, Lucy Cartwright, dead on the beach. And when one of the Toronto Titans, Domingo Avila, is arrested and charged with the murder, Kate is pulled into yet another police investigation.

Believing that Avila was framed, Kate sets out to prove his innocence. And with her police-detective boyfriend, Andy Munro, at home in Toronto, enlists

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Who is the new player on the Peach Street Mudders, and how can Alfie Maples help him improve his game?

Barry McGee, hit-away batter for the Peach Street Mudders, enjoys winning so much that he has a tendency to bend the rules--until the dirty tactics of the pitcher on a rival team give him a new perspective on sports ethics.