Goodness knows I'm no baseball fan, but I enjoyed the vivid relationships portrayed between Ricky, his feisty mother and the craggy, alchoholic Pitcher, as well as Ricky's struggle to make it to high school ball. You could see this story made into one of those feel-good movies, with maybe Kevin Costner as the Pitcher. In a way the character archetypes are almost too pat. Still, I found it an enjoyable read. ( )

The Pitcher is an appealing sports-related book that doesn't shy away from emotional resonance. It's more of a rarity to find in YA books these days and it's great to have something to offer to baseball fans in the same way I might steer soccer fans to The Keeper. This book didn't speak to my personal tastes as I read, but it's sure to be popular among its target audience. ( )

I got two ARCs of this book, one from here and one from another site. I'm giving one of the copies to a friend of mine who's mad about baseball.
I haven't gotten terribly far into the book yet. Honestly, I'd probably have read more of it by now if I were into sports.
It's entertaining while I'm reading it, but I'm not invested enough in the story or characters to make me want to pick it up when I'm doing something else.
The writing style is alright, very informal. It's written in the first person; I usually prefer third.
As a side note, that's a rather unfortunate picture of the author on the back cover. Kinda looks like he's judging me for sitting around in my skivvies all day. I'd suggest retaking the photo.

I liked it and I didn't at the same time. It is a bit repetitive and when it is not, it is full of re-directions. Jumped a bit around too much early on. This-but-that, that-but-this. Still it is a tried and true plot line. So much so familiar that it reminded me of an After School Special from the 1970's. It was a little sappy but with a good message.

It took a couple of days to finish because, again, it is a Young Adult level book. I also kept thinking that with some adult themes and more serious content, this could be a pretty good novel.

The characters were predictable, as was the story, but it was still a good, fun read. A pleasant story.

A young boy and his single mom befriend a curmudgeonly old neighbor who happens to be an old time pro baseball player. This was a pretty predictable, but enjoyable young adult novel. It would be a good choice for the preteen to young teen athlete. ( )

The Pitcher is a heartwarming baseball novel about a young Mexican-American boy's dream of becoming a pitcher, a mother's unrelenting love and support, and a broken former major league pitcher who can't get past the death of his wife.

Author William Hazelgrove weaves a touching tale set in Jacksonville, Florida, and written in the first person narrative that follows the journey of fourteen year old Ricky Hernandez as he overcomes obstacles to chase his dream of becoming a pitcher on his high school baseball team. Ricky has a great arm but doesn't have focus or control over his pitches. Ricky's mother Maria is his biggest supporter and she wants him to achieve his dream, but she knows that he needs a pitching coach. Maria asks their reclusive neighbor, Jack Langford, a former MLB pitcher whose team won the 1978 World Series, to coach her son in preparation for the high school baseball team tryouts.

This is an emotional and inspirational story about growing up, chasing dreams, overcoming obstacles, letting go of the past, healing and moving forward in life. This captivating tale will tug at the heartstrings as the reader follows the intertwining story of a young boy who overcomes discrimination and lack of self-confidence to chase his dream; a single mother's love for her son and her unrelenting support to help him achieve his dream while battling health and financial issues; and a reclusive former major league pitcher who learns to let go of the past, regain some joy and move forward in his life by sharing the mutual love of baseball with the young boy and his mother.

Baseball fans of all ages will love reading The Pitcher. Author William Hazelgrove weaves an enjoyable story about following dreams that brings to mind the classic jingle ... "baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet."

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by I Am A Reader.

http://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-pitcher-by-william-hazelgr... ( )

A book that many young men can connect to. Great book for teen boys to read. My reluctant readers now fight over this. ( )

The Pitcher is a YA novel that doesn't really excel at illuminating any of it's themes (poverty, bullying, coming of age, etc), yet it is enjoyable if not taken too seriously. ( )

Our young hero Ricky Hernandez struggles with poverty, bullying and an abusive, largely absentee father. He is blessed, however, with a mother lovingly dedicated to helping him in all ways possible. And he needs help: The tryouts for the freshman baseball team are fast approaching. Ricky has a good arm and solid but quite erratic fastball. Rita reads books and seeks advice online, but it isn’t enough to help Ricky find the strike zone. As it happens, the hermitic grouch across the street is reputed to be a former MLB pitcher. Jack Langford is content to sit in his darkened garage, drinking beer and watching baseball. He decidedly does NOT want to help Ricky. Rita’s dogged persistence overcomes is his similarly dogged reluctance, from which follows a series of sports (and life) lessons.

I was predisposed to like this novel in which a major character is loosely based on the baseball career of beloved great Detroit Tiger, Mickey Lolich. (And just the career. Happily, Mr. Lolich didn’t end up a broken drunk living in his garage.) I’m not usually taken by ‘young adult’ literature, and would be a poor judge as to its likely appeal to young readers. This baseball fanatic enjoyed it a great deal. Many young people do not have the same challenges as those faced by young Ricky. Most kids will find themselves challenged in other ways. The Pitcher provides timeless lessons in discipline, determination, love and chasing dreams that should appeal to young and old, sportsaholic and sportsphobe alike. ( )

The good news about The Pitcher is that it is not nearly as bad as William Hazelgrove’s last book, Rocket Man. The Pitcher seems to have enjoyed the attention of an editor, at least the partial attention at any rate; the errors, both in grammar and content are fewer here, but still far more numerous than any published text should have.

That’s it for the good news.

It would seem that Hazelgrove put his finger in the air and decided that the young adult market was the prevailing wind, and set about writing a YA novel. It is painfully apparent that this book is no labor of love, no heartfelt effort at writing for an appreciated audience; rather it seems a crass effort to cash in on what is selling at the moment. While YA titles are by definition written for a young audience less adept at reading than adults, this does not mean that YA books should be written downwards; the basic rules still apply: tell your story, describe action but do not supply motivations — allow the reader to come to her own conclusions. The Pitcher is written from the point of view of its adolescent protagonist, Ricky Hernandez, leading Hazelgrove to take the easy road of spelling out emotion, motivation and anything implicit in the form of direct or internal monologue from young Ricky. Young adult is about encouraging readers. Spelling everything out for them is insulting and wholly misses the point.

It is true that all stories have already been told, but The Pitcher fails in adding anything new to the come-from-behind underdog tale. Worse, Hazelgrove seems to have taken from Hollywood a sample of these tales, crammed them together between the covers of a book and, dusting his hands off, called it a day. Karate Kid + Bad News Bears + Grand Torino + The Sandlot + For the Love of the Game + heavy dose of schmaltz does not equal a quality story; it is shameful laziness. As with Rocket Man, Hazelgrove again demonstrates that he never encountered a trope he did not want to simplify further and overuse. And, as in Rocket Man, the characters are at once thinly drawn and clunky. Ricky’s mother (single, naturally) for example is a saint among literary saints; she can do no wrong and possesses more determination and grit than a thousand normal mothers combined, all while suffering untreated lupus. Why untreated, you ask? Because, as with cheap tropes, Hazelgrove cannot resist artlessly injecting social and political issues into his writing. Certainly, social ills and politics have a place in literature, but they should not be shoehorned into a story just because the author wants to show how he has been paying attention to cable news. After a while, Hazelgrove’s heavy-handed inclusion of social problems and clichés begin to read like a comic book:
Bigots against illegal immigration—POW!
Healthcare woes—ZING!
Rich people treading on the poor—BOOF!
Abusive, absent fathers—ZOWIE!
Alcoholic with a tortured past—BLAMMO!
Dyslexia—BAM!

Hazelgrove continues his tradition of beating his readers over the head with awfully named characters: the authoritarian, racially biased middle school dean (dean? in middle school?) is named Freedom. Get it? Freedom, because it is the opposite! We are also offered gems such as a PE teacher named Mr. Truss and a whole family of antagonistic bigots named Payne.

Then there are the odd constructions. I read the phrase “under the garage” in a dozen different sentences before I understood that Hazelgrove meant “under the garage door.” Consider, for example, “The tips of these old brown shoes appear under the garage.” What, Wizard of Oz style? Or equally puzzling, “Mom hesitates, then leans down and rolls the baseball under the garage like a thank you card.” Now the garage is on piers and that is where thank you cards are traditionally delivered? Who “ashes” a cigarette instead of flicking the ash away? And who “rolls” their shoulders instead of the more universally understood shrug?

I wonder why Hazelgrove could not be bothered to learn that motorcycle windscreens are made of plastic, not glass. This detail would not be very important, and the author could be excused for making the mistake, if the windscreen material was not, well, material to the scene in which it is featured. Similarly, when Ricky, who lives and breathes baseball, describes the space between pitcher and batter as “70 feet” one wonders if the extra nine and a half feet he is contending with are not part of his problem pitching. Again, the difference of a few feet would be forgivable if every other scene at ballgames were not described in excruciating, boring detail.

There are copious examples of horrible, stilted, unrealistic dialogue and questionable word use for the characters. When did a teenage boy last describe his mother’s outfit as an “off-the-shoulder-number”? And if you must, for the sake of the story, use a racial slur, at least use a real one. “Beano?”

For fans of the speedy happy ending, however improbable, The Pitcher will not disappoint. SPOILER ALERT!!! Everything turns out just fine in the end. Ricky wins the big game, the bully is defeated, Mom gets all better and two lonely people find love, all in the space of the final few pages of the story. Blech. ( )

This is a marvelously executed story that will certainly appeal to all baseball lovers, especially teen boys. With today's psychology about the immigration question facing this country it becomes even more pertinent a novel, with a message I think from which, particularly Republican obstructionists, might learn a lot. The story intrigues on many levels and, at its ending, satisfies . It is a book well worth seeking! ( )

The Pitcher was one of my favorite Early Reviewer books so far! The book follows Ricky on his quest to make the High School baseball team as a pitcher. Ricky's mom is a strong willed mostly single mother who's desire to see him succeed might be even stronger than his own. There is also the down and out former pitcher across the street. The combination of these three characters leads to many conflicts and also some successes. Like I said I really enjoyed this book and would gladly recommend it. ( )

This i would have to say is one if the best sports books ive read in a long time the charactors. And storyline are great . I would highly. Recommend rhis book to any sports fan ( )

Not great literature, but I'm not disappointed I read it.

The Pitcher was sweet, engaging, and fun. It pulled together a lot of different themes and problems. I was rooting for the protagonist all the way and the first person/present tense narrative didn't get in the way much or make me want to pull my hair out.

It was a little bit cheesy and sometimes slightly rough around the edges, but all in a forgivable way. Worse, it was mostly predictable and the baseball games themselves repetitive, but the best passages still made my heart wrench and the room was a little dusty at the end.

Take it for what it is--a quick, mostly-YA baseball book--and it's a good one. ( )

The Pitcher by William Hazelgrove tells the story of Ricky and his mother's mission to get Ricky on the high school baseball team. This story has a lot going for it. The characters are likable. Ricky's bullied by his peers because of his ethnicity; his mother is literally killing herself to help her son achieve his goals; despite his gruff exterior and penchant for listening to anti-immigration shows on tv, The Pitcher can't help himself from helping Ricky and his mother. It's easy to care about the characters and I found myself wanting to keep reading to find out what happened to them.

Despite the intriguing characters and the entertaining plot, there are problems with this book. The book is poorly written and poorly edited. For example, parts of the book, the writing reads more like a script than a story: "Mom starts crying. Now the Pitcher looks embarrassed" (131). The author misses out many opportunities for action and for character development by telling readers what happens instead of allowing them to become part of the scene by showing them what happens. There are also many typos like "ethic" rather than "ethnic" (142). One of the most distracting things in the story is Ricky's frequent use of "Man"; rather than creating a believable teenage voice, the style just becomes a distraction from the story.

If you're looking for an entertaining read with characters you can care about, this book is great. If you're looking for a well-written piece of literature, try another book.

Disclaimer: In exchange for a review, I received a free copy of The Pitcher. All opinions are my own. ( )

Ricky Hernandez is an 8th grade pitcher for his school team with a live arm and no clue how to control it. He has dreams of making the high school team; it's his only ticket to a college scholarship and a shot at the American dream. He and his divorced mother (his pitching coach and biggest fan) are struggling to keep it all together as they contend against financial issues, a deadbeat dad, cultural attitudes and a school and athletic establishment that seem to be weighted against him. They also happen to live across the street from Jack Langford, a reclusive retired pitcher who led the Detroit Tigers in the 1978 World Series, winning three complete games and the Series MVP.

If this sounds familiar, just take the plot of "The Karate Kid" (not the one with Will Smith's son) and change it to pitching baseball. Not a bad story, decently written. Just too predictable, especially once Mr. Myagi (oops -- Jack Langford) steps in. ( )

Somehow a thin book about a boy with a devoted mother and their shared dream of his making the high school baseball team as pitcher chases down every cliche in this genre, but then deftly fields it.

Among the characters are a faded MLB star, a bully, a mean mom (not the hero's) and a drunken misogynist. The issue of immigration reform hangs over this tale, set in south Florida.

This book shouldn't be as good as it is, but Hargrove, narrating his tale through the 13 year-old protagonist, hits on universal themes and touches all the bases.

Overall, the story is quite good. I read into the night to finish it. Even though I knew it would probably have a happy ending, and I was hoping for it, Pollyanna as that might be, I still wanted to see how the author could pull it off. He did it well. It was not cloying at all. At times, I thought the book seemed more appropriate for a middle-grader. I think younger boys might benefit more, overall, from the lessons in the book about family, broken homes, alcoholism, loss, coping, self-control, citizenship, sportsmanship, perseverance, effort, individual responsibility, pride, taking chances, patience, and so much more. Although it is intended for tenth grade and up, with the exception of some crude dialogue, blanked out curse words, and perhaps the themes of abuse and alcoholism that are touched upon, it might also be appropriate for a wider audience of younger readers. There are so many values touched upon, and they really are developed well. I think that these values are best taught when kids are young and more pliable. I felt that some tenth-graders might have passed the time when it would be most effective and might already be a bit too sophisticated for the subject.
The book examines relationships and does a pretty good job of showing how teens abuse, bully and intimidate one another, how someone who believes he is superior can threaten his victims with only his tongue as a weapon and can do a lot of damage to the person’s view of himself and self-esteem, and also how someone should react to a bully to prevent them from screwing with their heads. Hazelgrove does a pretty commanding job of shining a light on the bigotry and bullying in the schools and playing fields, and he shows its effect on the selection of players for positions and teams, which is an oxymoron since sports should teach kids about sportsmanship and doing one’s personal best, above all!
The nine-year-old boy, Ricky Hernandez, at the center of this story, is Mexican. His mom, Maria, is determined to do everything in her power to help him succeed. Because he is dyslexic, not only his heritage has held him back, but his difficulty in school has disheartened him and sometimes he fails to make the appropriate effort to succeed, already assuming in advance that he will fail. Maria’s ex-husband is an abusive creep who would better serve them all if he disappeared. He only comes around to act like a big shot and get money or be physically and verbally abusive. Maria is depicted as beautiful, capable and hard-working until recently, when she lost her job at Target for trying to organize the workers. She is pretty sick and now has no health insurance. She puts Ricky’s needs first and often provides him with things she can’t afford and foregoes medical treatment instead.
Maria is the assistant baseball coach for Ricky’s team and she is determined to have him make the high school team because she believes he has a gift, a really fast, fastball. Across the street from where they live, there is a has-been pitcher who lives in his garage. To compete with the kids who have private coaches, she knows that Ricky needs more help than she can provide. She would really like to have the pitcher help him out, but the pitcher is a reclusive eccentric and a drunk. The story really gets more interesting when she manages, with feminine wiles and kindness, to entice him to help her son, and in that effort, she also tries to help him overcome his weaknesses. As the story develops there is some violence, but that is overshadowed by the theme of developing patience and of not letting anyone bait you with insults.
Unfortunately, I detected an additional agenda in the book, about “undocumented workers”. Many times, my feelings were not in sync with the author’s. Yes, Ricky Hernandez is a victim of racial bias, but that has nothing to do with illegal immigration or health care. His mom is half Puerto Rican and half Mexican. He considers himself Mexican. He has heard hate speech directed at him and been unfairly punished and/or singled out for reprimand and discipline, instead of the guilty bigot. He tries hard not to let it get the better of him because he knows that is what the bully and the racist want. That will only make them attack harder. Ricky is revealed to be this great kid, polite and respectful, helpful and rarely defiant, although he has his wicked moments. He does admit he lies, doesn’t every kid? (I am not sure that is a good value to put out there.) Eric, his teammate, the white coach’s son, on the other hand, is presented as a spoiled, loud-mouthed brat, an arrogant kid who knows that his mom and dad will favor him and get him out of any trouble he creates.
The white characters in the story were portrayed in a much more negative light as evil bullies, as racists who use their money to garner unfair influence, as cheaters and bad sports, capable of unfair compromise and skullduggery. On the other hand we have Maria who is depicted almost larger than life, as a much more responsible coach, keeping the field and its environs clean, fighting those who call her son names and shout out racial slurs. This tiny Mexican woman is portrayed as if she is invincible and can succeed at anything. Sometimes, I laughingly felt like I should be singing “mighty mouse is on the way, mighty mouse will save the day”, because at certain points, it seemed a little over the top.
Also, the timeline felt a little out of sync, like more than just a few weeks were left to train Ricky for the tryouts. But the book held my interest, and the story flowed naturally and smoothly from page to page. In the end, this is a feel good "Cinderella" story for guys, but it also has its moment as a tear-jerker. Overall, it is a great story about dreams coming true. ( )

Whether they will admit it or not, most guys still react to a heart-tugging baseball novel the same way they reacted to one when they were kids. Almost every boy, at one time or another - even if only for a moment - has probably dreamed of becoming a professional athlete, and in my day, that usually meant dreaming of major league baseball. And, reliving those dreams for a day or two via a good baseball novel is still quite a kick for guys like us. The Pitcher, William Hazelgrove’s new novel allowed me to escape into that world again for a little while last week.

Ricky Hernandez is a kid with an arm. Not yet in high school, Ricky is already throwing a baseball a consistent 74 miles an hour. And, on those rather rare occasions he gets the ball over the plate, he is pretty much unhittable in his youth league. The problem is that opposing coaches know how wild he is and they give the take sign to even their best hitters when Ricky is not on his game. The results are predictable.

Ricky’s mom, fighting an illness that has the potential to prove fatal, knows that her son has the natural ability to be special if only he can learn to control his pitches. Because the boy’s father is no longer living with the family, she diligently relies on books and diagrams to coach Ricky – a strategy that most definitely is not working. But desperate times call for desperate measures (as the cliché goes), and she decides to grab the attention of the former World Series MVP who hibernates across the street in his garage. She knows that if Ricky does not make his high school team in the open tryouts that are just a few weeks away he might never played organized baseball again. It is not going to be easy, however, even if she does get some MVP coaching.

The Pitcher is one of my favorite reads of the summer, a summer during which I needed to find something about baseball to feel good about again because of the doping scandals and the sheer awfulness of my hometown team. William Hazelgrove has done it. I am pleased to find that my love of the game is as deep as ever; it only took The Pitcher to rekindle it.

Bottom Line: The Pitcher may be labeled as a YA novel, but readers will not really notice or care about that. The book also touches on issues not related to baseball that impact Ricky’s life – especially alcoholism and living in America as the first generation child of an “illegal alien.” There is a lot going on here. Baseball fans, this one is for you. ( )

This review was written for Early Reviewers LibraryThing.

Ricky Hernandez is a young Mexican boy who has a dream of becoming a major league pitcher. But first he needs to make the high school team. He is able to deliver a fast ball, but he has no control. Ricky's mom, Maria, is a very strong minded woman, and does her best to coach Ricky and help him make the team. She is struggling with health issues - she has Lupus. She has no health insurance and is going without medical treatment. Ricky and his mom are struggling financially. He has a loser for a father, who only comes around when he needs money. He sometimes physically abuses his mom, and Ricky has lost all respect for him.

Maria wants to see her son's dream come true. She approaches a retired major league pitcher to coach her son. Jack Langford pitched in the World Series in 1978 and won the Series. But, the pitcher doesn't want to coach Ricky. All he does is watch TV and drink beer, wallowing in self pity and drowning in his sorrows. He lives in a garage and passes out from drinking so much. What happened to Jack Langford, the pitcher? Where did all the greatness go? The pitcher finally, but reluctantly, agrees to help Ricky and prepare him to try out for the team. He tells Ricky he has talent, but no drive. And the story unfolds ---

This is a simple story, but a story with a lot of depth that leaves you with a warm feeling. Ricky is an endearing character who will capture your heart. The Pitcher is a relaxed read that unfolds into a predictable, but happy ending. My rating is 4 stars.

I received an Early Reviewers Copy from Library Thing and Koehler Books in exchange for an honest review of this book. ( )

The Pitcher is an excellent book which tells a tale sure to capture the readers attention. The author William Hazelgrove weaves back and forth from the baseball fields to real life situations with ease. I think this book would be a really good read for young people in the 10 - 15 year age group. As an older reader with their baseball days well behind them I found the story line and characters very interesting and entertaining. ( )

This book was fine, better than "Rocket Man;" so I think Hazelgrove is getting better. While I'm a big baseball fan, I think this book is probably more suited for teenagers than for adults. The plot is not particularly complex or sophisticated. The one thing that drove me crazy was Hazelgrove's misuse of lots of baseball vernacular. For example, several times he mentions batters pounding their bats on the "rubber." I know home plate is made out of rubber, but no one calls it that. And at one point he talks about the pitcher staring in the 70 feet from the mound to the plate. Even in the majors, the distance is only 60 feet, 6 inches from the rubber to the plate. 14 year olds are going to be even closer. Details make a difference. (And keep my head from exploding.) ( )

The Pitcher is the story of a young Mexican boy who has a powerful but uncontollable fastball.
His and his mom's dream is the make the high school team. The story deals with their struggles
with no coach, financial woes, and discriminatin from multiple sources. Their salvation lies, or not,
in an ex-Major League pitcher who lives across the street, who does nothing but live in his garage
drinking beer and watching tv. The characters are rich and well developed and I found it very easy to
become involved in their lives. This is a very nice story as it tells how the characters and their
relationships grow and develop. I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it to anyone. ( )

A nice story about a young Latino boy who fights prejudice, and control of his fast-ball, to try to make the high school baseball team! He and his mother try to enlist the help of their neighbor, The Pitcher, to coach him, but the worn down old major leaguer is none too pleased at the prospect! The mom is a very strong character, and the grumpy ol' Pitcher is too! I also liked the inclusion of the recent anti-immigrant laws in Arizona and the battles many Latinos are going through to fight the prejudice in that state and around the U.S.! Very timely and important! A nice summer read, especially with the ball-game on the radio! ( )

This was a good story line. However, it seemed to get repetitive and some of the baseball facts seemed to either be short of explanation or showed a lack of baseball knowledge. . ( )