Screwballs & Short Hops: Four Classic Base-Ball Stories

By Tracy Tomkowiak

The History of Baseball Turned on its Head-Four Vintage Tales in One Volume Welcome to American Flim-Flam, where we poke fun at the game of baseball during its early and formative years in the 1800s. With two full-length novels and two shorter works, Screwballs & Short Hops features a cast of quirky characters in humorous and oftentimes farcical situations as we take aim at satirizing our national pastime.The stories: Big League Balderdash A rollicking tale of the first four decades of baseball with dozens of player profiles and in the center of it all a colossal clash between the rich and powerful industrialist J.B. Sterne and the pugnacious beer baron Pete Schnockerd-with the entire future of the game up for grabs. Vs. Speaking of clashes, two hard-scrabble baseball rivals, Chester Deevers and Bill "Spit" Mullansky duke it out with their teams in a no-holds-barred playoff contest to see who survives each other's blatant cheating. Chock full of foul language, over-the-top antics and sudden bursts of violence, this is vintage baseball at its finest Barnstormin' Flynt Doyle is down on his luck. Once a star outfielder for the Chicago Unions, he's now been kicked out of the game for his habitual drunkenness and his only way back in is to manage the hapless Baltimore Federals, the worst team ever to play. Follow Doyle as he drags the team across the country on a barnstorming tour in search of a way out of their misfortune.Left Field The baseball era of the 19th century has long been forgotten, but an odd bit of memorabilia has managed to pop back into the present day.American Flim-Flam plays fast and loose with our nation's past, offering a fresh and oftentimes satirical take on the paragons of our country's popular culture, including our national pastime and the Old West. You'll encounter dozens of oddball characters and find yourself engrossed in outlandish situations as we look to lampoon our over-glorified heritage.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1514173328
• ISBN13: 9781514173329
• Release Date: June 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 690 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"