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Artvoice Weekly Edition » Issue v9n26 (06/30/2010) » Section: Literary Buffalo


Book Review: Blockade Billy, by Stephen King

We’re just about at the halfway point of the major league baseball season, so what better time for a new baseball book? No, it’s not another book of statistics — you know the ones, chock-full of inane things like “that’s only the 37th time in league history that a left-handed hitter faced a right-handed pitcher who both made their First Communion on the same day, albeit in different churches, in the same town.” Nope, this is a much better book, and one you can read from start to finish in less time than it takes to watch a game. Stephen King, Red Sox fan and master of horror—for years the two went hand-in-hand—penned this little novella (supposedly in two weeks) about William Blakely, known throughout his career with the Newark Titans as Blockade Billy. A player whose entire major league career was wiped from the record books for reasons which come to light late in the story, Blakely was a last-minute addition to the Titans roster after their two regular catchers were hurt just before opening day. And they were hurt in a manner that just never could happen to a catcher with the nickname “Blockade.”

Flash Fiction: May We Shed These Human Bodies

We were good at being trees, long ago. We had been years with our knots, tallying the rains and dry spells with careful accuracy. We shared conversation with the wind, the squirrels, the spiders. We shared quiet with the clouds before they burst.

Lit City: Literary Events

Lit City literary event listings are presented by Just Buffalo (justbuffalo.org).



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