Throwing Heat

Last season, Jack s pitches were the fastest around, and he could always rely on them to strike out his opponents.<br><br>But now he s playing in a new middle school league, where the distance between the pitching rubber and the catcher s mitt is a lot greater. Jack keeps throwing heat but he can t get seem to get balls into the strike zone.<br><br>Then Finn, a baseball coach at a local college, offers to help. He shows Jack some new pitches and tells him about Steve Dalkowski, a hard-throwing left-hander often considered the fastest pitcher in baseball history who never made it out of the minor leagues. He didn t have enough control over his fastball, and he didn t throw other pitches like a change-up or a curve ball.<br><br>At first Jack doesn t listen to the coach s advice. But soon, with the season on the line, he realizes that Finn was right. Is it too late to change his game plan?<br><br>Author Fred Bowen offers up another terrific sports adventure featuring exciting play-by-play game action as well as victories and upsets on and off the field that will keep young readers on the edge of their seats.