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In his senior year, Coley Burke is on top of it all, a baseball star courted by the major league scouts for his pitching arm, with his choice of college scholarships and pretty girls. He chooses red-haired Bree, who has a reputation for being hot. Their relationship mystifies him: Bree is sexually aggressive all right, but she retreats angrily whenever Coley asks questions about her fami... More

In his senior year, Coley Burke is on top of it all, a baseball star courted by the major league scouts for his pitching arm, with his choice of college scholarships and pretty girls. He chooses red-haired Bree, who has a reputation for being hot. Their relationship mystifies him: Bree is sexually aggressive all right, but she retreats angrily whenever Coley asks questions about her family. Coley has family troubles of his own--a father who criticizes every detail of Coley's pitching and constantly holds up the example of his older brother, Patrick, now four years dead. For Coley, his relationship with his wild and athletic brother is symbolized by the metal statue of Reggie Jackson in their backyard and the gonging sound it made when the two of them used it for surreptitious target practice. But Coley is flunking English, he's injured his ankle and can't play, and when Bree tells him she's pregnant, he sees his career in the big leagues swirling down the drain if he can't solve his problems.

James W. Bennett, as always, sticks pretty close to the conventions of the sports novel--the pressuring dad, the wise coach, the sports injury, the Big Game, the career in jeopardy. There's plenty of play-by-play baseball action here, described in the jargon of the sports page, and boys looking for a straightforward sports novel with a bit of sex thrown in will be willing to forgive the half-baked psychology of this simple story that tries to be more than it is. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell

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