I just reread this old favorite of mine and, damn, it's short but as good as I remembered.

It's just the story of a baseball match, a little league final between two teams called "Northeast Gas & Electric" vs "Earl Grubb's Pool Supplies". It's basically a play by play description of the game, from the point of view of the "Earl Grubb's" players.

That sounds awful, I know, but it's written with so much passion for the game, and with such a heart-felt examination of the characters, their motivations, their hopes and fears, that it's more entertaining and moving than it has any right to be. It's a book about baseball, of course, but also about friendship, and the joys and sorrows of team sports.

If you have no familiarity at all with baseball you can get a bit lost in the technicalities, but the passion still comes through.

Just another reminder that really good children's literature can be enjoyed by adults, and if you have a kid who likes sports, this is a great choice as a gift. ( )

Little league and baseball fans will love this book. Lots of baseball detail here. The whole book is one 6 inning baseball game announced by a boy with cancer who can not play the game. ( )

Two teams battle for the little league championship baseball game. Sam is the game’s announcer – he’s injured (sick, cancer) and so can’t play – but lives through each moment of the game. I really loved how the story brought you into how different players felt at each small moment of the game, play by play. ( )

This book made me, an absolute non-baseball fan, finally understand what that game is all about. The short title will be adored by baseball lovers. It covers, with extraordinary depth, one championship little league game. Also on the table is one character's cancer and others' various trials. I'm not sure how well the book illuminated those things, but the book is well worth reading just for the baseball drama. ( )

I wrote the author a fan letter:
Hi James Preller -
I'll never be able to drive by or ride my bike past a baseball diamond with a team practicing or playing and not think about Sam and Branden and Dylan and Mike...
Thanks for a fine and simple story -- I am a children's librarian and I have read children's books to children for almost 40 years. I blog about children's books at Anokaberry. I posted Six Innings just now and added a link to your website as well. I loved your book. I loved Uncle Jimmy and Carter -- "Carter stared at the photo, absorbing every detail. To him, it confirmed everything he had ever suspected. The world was not fair. Not even baseball." I marked many passages with post-its -- It is a library book, after all... I loved the note in the Acknowledgements -- "Much of the first draft of this book was written by hand in a spiral notebook in the Bethlehem Public Library in Delmar, New York..." I write a fan letter to an author every now and again. I do it to connect and to thank you for writing respectfully and finely for our young people. And to let you know that your story moved and inspired me. The fineness of your writing was perfection in this little book. ( )