Carnival Baseball
- Authors
- Cox, Colby
- Publisher
- Colby Cox
- Tags
- bow tie , devil , midgets , witch doctors , slapstick , robots , swing , tobacco , gambling , magic , delaware , humor , thirties , spitting , baseball , ghosts , wilmington , cigars , america , vampires , men
- Date
- 2010-09-09T00:00:00+00:00
- Size
- 0.22 MB
- Lang
- en
Managing a Carny Baseball team is a tough gig. Just ask Sarge Safran. As head coach of the 1933 Wilmington Whispers, he holds a grocery list of troubles. His catcher is a double amputee. The robot outfielders are held together with chicken wire and his star player is an ego-driven hunk of chewing tobacco. Witch doctors. Vampires with tommy guns. Pitchers who wield lightning. Of course, all pale in comparison to the pending wager with the Devils Right Hand and the nine inning bet for Sarge’s soul.
And who exactly is the stranger that lurks in the shadows of the bleachers?
The story is set during a steamy July and follows Sarge and his band of Carny Ball misfits as they weave their way by train up and down the east coast playing against rival teams with supernatural abilities. The Lynchburg Lightning, for example, can harness electricity to their advantage, while Hooligan Pete, pitcher for the Baltimore Bombers, is a tenacious and indestructible Irishman who has lived for over one hundred and fifty years. The book at times delves into the skewed history of the Carnival Baseball League and fits it into the common perception of American life during the thirties.
Tristan “Sarge” Safran is the cigar-chomping, bow tie-wearing first baseman with a heart of gold whose secret past has finally come home to roost. Usually the strong and silent type, it is learned through his conversations with his sidekick Mink Cosgrove and his quiet moments with the love of his life, speakeasy singer Delilah, that his existence hangs in the balance. From Ascension Parish, Louisiana to post-war France, it comes to light that Sarge has offered his soul as collateral in a deal with Mr. Aldous Scratch, the devil’s Gatsby-like henchman, to save a friend. It all culminates into a single game between Sarge’s Whispers and Scratch’s roster of the most vile and evil men to have ever donned Carny Ball uniforms.
Carnival Baseball turns the mythology of our nation’s pastime on its head and tells the tale of a born loser who simply refuses to fail.
71,000 Words / Thirty-three Chapters.