by Stephen King
First published 2010
William "Blockade Billy" Blakely arrives as a rookie catcher with skills that seem too good to be true. His teammates and coaches watch in amazement as he transforms their struggling team with plays that defy explanation. Baseball insiders whisper about his uncanny ability to read batters and control the game from behind the plate. But Billy carries a secret that goes far beyond performance enhancement drugs or gambling scandals. As the season progresses, the truth about what makes Billy so extraordinary begins to surface. The revelation proves so disturbing that baseball officials take unprecedented action. They systematically remove every trace of Billy's existence from official records, statistics, and team rosters. His name disappears from box scores and newspaper archives. Even his teammates are instructed never to speak of him again. The sport that Billy briefly dominated now pretends he never existed. This erasure represents the only way baseball can protect itself from the horror of what Billy truly was.
Genres: mystery, horror, thriller, baseball
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-century
132 pages · Hardcover · Scribner