Chasing the Big Leagues

Brett Baker claims he was working on his MFA degree at the University of Alabama throughout the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike. Born and raised in and around Columbus, Ohio, he currently lives in the Rheinland-Pfalz region of Germany with his wife Melinda, stepdaughter Lydia, and Clochette the cat.

"Baseball famously is the one sport played without a clock. Brett Baker's timeless and timeful novel Chasing the Big Leagues is steeped in pastoral passion of the national pastime. This book is in love with the amateur, in love with the pure love of the game that lies in the heart as the clock runs down over the far horizon of the furthest outfield and the sun is always nostalgically setting, turning the diamond into a bright enduring tarp of diamond-tipped and dusty words. This book is a gem, and Baker is the next new Natural."—Michael Martone, author of Michael Martone and The Moon Over Wapakoneta"Brett Baker's Chasing the Big Leagues is set during the now famous 1994–95 baseball strike and the protagonist is called up to play as a scab for the Toronto Blue Jays.Baker knows his baseball . . . the hitting, the fielding, the feel of the ball, what makes a team tick, the coaching.The book is filled with wonderful and arcane baseball details, and it's a good read, a page turner, but of course the setting is during one of the worst of times for baseball so there's a strong element of melancholy in it, too.I strongly recommend it."—John Keeble, author of Yellowfish and Broken Ground