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Paula Messina Reviews: The Fireballer by Mark Stevens

  

Please welcome author Paula Messina back to the blog today…

The Fireballer

by Paula Messina

 

The Fireballer, a novel by Mark Stevens, is the story of Baltimore Oriole rookie pitcher Frank Ryder who can put the ball over the plate at more than 100 mph. Fueled by Ryder’s gas, the hapless Orioles are at last truly in the pennant race. Ryder is haunted by an accident his errant ball caused when he was twelve years old. Ten years later, Ryder is a phenom, a pitcher who is untouchable.

He has achieved his goal of playing in the majors, but he can’t relax and enjoy his success. Ryder misses Maggie, his girlfriend, who is hundreds of miles away in school, but if he’s willing, there are plenty of women lined up who are even more willing. He has the sudden wealth that is heaped on athletes, so he can afford a fancy condo with a fabulous view. But it’s icy, not a home. He’s been convinced to wear expensive duds, but he feels like a fraud. Ryder is recognized everywhere he goes, and he has no clue how to handle himself. He’s a once-in-a-lifetime pitcher driven by his love for the game. All he wants to do is throw strikes and win games.

And underlying everything is that accident Frank Ryder cannot escape.

Fireballer is about guilt and redemption. It is also about baseball, a big business that eats its own.

Ryder’s pitching prowess makes him a freak. His success makes the baseball union and the commission decidedly uncomfortable. They want to ban those 105 mph pitches. After all, how can the bigwigs watch baseball’s best hitters stand helplessly at the plate while their batting averages wallow in the toilet. Not to mention the possibility fans will become bored with all that Frank Ryder winning.

Before the union and commission can impose a speed limit, Ryder’s teammate is beaned and out for the rest of the season. The unwritten rule in baseball is that the pitcher retaliates. Tit for tat. We lose one. You lose one. His teammates on the field, in the dugout, and in the bullpen expect Ryder to do the right thing, seek revenge. Only Ryder is having none of it. He shakes off his irate catcher’s signals to bean the batter.

The next pitch has a mind of its own and hits the batter in his torso. He’s down, definitely out, and not moving.

Nobody believes it was an accident. Ryder is suspended.

But far worse, Ryder’s arm goes AWOL. He’s a pitching phenomenon who cannot pitch.

The reader roots for Frank Ryder to overcome his past and find happiness because he is a normal Joe, a good person overwhelmed by circumstances. His pitching is freakish. He is not. We know Frank Ryder. He’s your next-door neighbor, the kid you went to high school with, or your first cousin lucky enough to make it to the majors. He’s normal in every way except when he picks up a baseball and steps onto the mound.

Can Frank Ryder revive his arm, or is he a flash in the pan whose time has already come and gone?

 At times, it’s painful to read Ryder’s story. I mean this in the best way possible. His agony is so real, so visceral the reader can’t help but be moved. Most of us never come close to that kind of fame and success, but we all experience guilt and the need for redemption. We know what it’s like to struggle to recapture a part of ourselves that was lost. It’s man’s fate.

The novel’s tension dips when Ryder turns his energy to philanthropy by visiting a school. This isn’t a surprise. Ryder’s humanity spends most of the novel hovering around the edges waiting to surface, but Ryder and the students struggle to communicate. The chapter would have benefited from a bit of judicious pruning. It’s the pressure Ryder puts on himself and inflicted by the Orioles staff, the union, and the baseball commission that fuels the novel. The Orioles’ race for the American League Pennant and the biggest prize of all, the World Series, keeps the reader turning pages. We want Frank Ryder to prevail because he is one of us.

Despite the philanthropy dip, the writing is solid. Stevens creates characters that readers identify with and care about. He’s a master of description. Ryder’s twin brother “broods on problems. Ryder only played chess with Josh if they used a timer.”

Stevens lets the reader hear the ball as it smacks into the pitcher’s glove and the sound of the fans in the bleachers. “The crowd buzzes. It’s the hum of humanity. It’s restlessness. It’s wonder. It’s 37,700 squirming fans who have agreed through some sort of telepathic communion to react as one.”

 Fireballer reminds us that baseball once was America’s favorite pastime, and within its pages, Frank Ryder, is our favorite player.

Mark Stevens, a Massachusetts native, lives in Colorado and writes The Flynn Martin Thriller and The Allison Coil Mystery Series. In 2016 and  2023, Stevens was recognized as the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Writer of the Year. Stevens knows his baseball, and he is a wise man. He does not like the designated hitter, neither does Frank Ryder.

The Fireballer is a grand slam that should be designated to the top of your to-be-read pile.

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4g4y1ct

 

Paula Messina ©2026 

Paula Messina writes the Donatello Laguardia stories, which are set in Boston’s North End during the 1940s. They appeared in the Best New England Crime Stories 2024 and 2025 and another Donatello Laguardia short story is scheduled to appear in Black Cat Weekly. She lives near America’s first public beach.

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Striking Out by Alison Gordon

 

In honor of the official start of the baseball season, I looked for a mystery or two about the sport of baseball. Alison Gordon (1943 – 2015) was a Canadian journalist and sports writer for CBC and the Toronto Star. She was one of Canada’s first well-known women sports journalists, covering the Toronto Blue Jays. Gordon also wrote five mysteries about sports reporter Kate Henry.

In Striking Out (McClelland & Stewart, 1995), the fourth book of the series, Kate is at loose ends because of the major league baseball strike that began in August 1994 and would end eventually in April 1995. But Kate didn’t know that a couple of weeks after the strike began. With no games being played, she can only report on the progress of settlement talks, or lack thereof. So when the son of her friend and neighbor reports the homeless lady who has been camping out in the alley behind their house has disappeared, Kate has time to look into it.

Around the same time Kate’s partner, homicide detective Andy Munro, is shot in a prospective drug bust that unexpectedly turned violent during which the shooter was killed. The resulting reaction inflamed racial tensions in the city that were already simmering and brought protests against police violence. Kate is too busy focusing on Andy, whose injuries were serious, to pay attention to anything else. Once he is on the mend, she turns back to searching the shelters and social services offices for someone who might know what became of her back street resident.

The themes in this book of racial discrimination in policing, police violence, limitations in social support for those without conventional homes, and domestic abuse are just as relevant today as they were when this book was published 30 years ago. Gordon works a good bit of factual information about law enforcement violence and homelessness into the narrative. Kate is an appealing character; her ability to juggle her work and monitor her convalescent partner and look for an apparent societal dropout is impressive, if exhausting.

This book was a finalist for the 1996 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel. The series is older and will likely not be available in libraries, but interlibrary loan is always an option. The books are readily available on the secondary market.

 

·                     Publisher: ‎McClelland & Stewart (April 29, 1995)

·                     Language: ‎English

·                     Hardcover: ‎240 pages

·                     ISBN-10: ‎0771034237

·                     ISBN-13: ‎978-0771034237

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3FWjhjF

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night. 

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Review: The Fireballer by Mark Stevens

 

Many years ago, when Tiger Woods started, it was clear nobody could do what he could do. Nobody had the power, before him, to drive the tee shot so far down the length of the fairway. He made it look easy and the lords of golf were not pleased. Before long, as it seemed like every tournament would be naming Tiger Woods as a champion, the courses were changed and others were marketed as “Tiger Proof.” What Tiger was first to do is now routine for many professional golfers. His days of being a phenom were numbered because human ability and the sport evolved. 

 

Frank Ryder is in the same spot in the here and now as Tiger Woods was many years ago. The sport is different is this time it is baseball. Frank Ryder can consistently pitch at 110 mph and maybe even higher. What he can do with a baseball is amazing and it is just not the speed. Though the speed makes everything else work incredibly well. Because of him, the Baltimore Orioles are upsetting the competitive balance in the American League East where the Yankees and Red Sox expect to dominate the standings and the market. 

 

What Frank Ryder can do is seen by some as a threat to baseball itself. The owners are soon discussing putting a cap on how fast a ball can be thrown because Ryder is virtually unhittable. Instead of celebrating human achievement and the fact that what Ryder can do now will be common in another few years, they want to micromanage Ryder because fans surveyed seem to want to see homers and not shutouts. 

 

It should be a magical year for Ryder as he takes his team to the playoffs for the first time in a very long time. But, it isn’t. Ryder has a dark secret. Some of which folks know about as long ago he honored one of the many unwritten rules of baseball. But, what the public knows about what happened is just the tip of the iceberg. Much more is going on in Ryder’s head. Dealing with the past and the pressure of now is difficult when the media is focused on every move you make and every breath you take. 

 

The Fireballer: A Novel by Mark Stevens is a complicated read and one that goes far beyond the game of baseball. Legacy, hope, redemption, and more play out against the backdrop of baseball, being a teammate, and how you deal with the unwritten rules. The same unwritten rules that mandate how you function as a teammate because that is the way it has always has been. 

 

Much like this review that only skims the surface of the book, The Fireballer: A Novel by Mark Stevens is a complicated book on multiple levels. At its heart, it is about a supremely talented pitcher in major league baseball. But, far more is at work in this complicated read. The Fireballer: A Novel by Mark Stevens is and incredibly complicated and powerful novel. It is also well worth your time, regardless of how you feel about baseball.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4g4y1ct  

My reading copy came by way of an ARC through NetGalley.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2023

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Review: "Double Switch" by T. T. Monday (aka Nick Taylor)

Double Switch by T. T. Monday is the second book in the series featuring San Jose Bull Dogs Relief Pitcher, Johnny Adcock. He is well aware that he is far closer to the end of his career than the start as he moonlights as a non-paid private investigator to his fellow players. He’s helped more than one player out of a jam and keeps details to himself. That fact and a few other things means he has a bit of a reputation around Major League Baseball (MLB) among the players and the ownership.

Tiff Tate also has a reputation around MLB. She is what is known as a “stylist.” When having a certain look can make a player rich by celebrity endorsements, she designs a persona to fit the player on the field and off. She gets paid well. Very well in fact as she is reputed to earn mid six figures for each makeover she can well afford her private jet and other luxuries. She also can suddenly resurrect a struggling player’s career with a few tweaks. More than any other sport, superstition rules baseball and when her player makeover magic works it adds to her allure and mystique.

But, the stylist to the players has a problem she can’t solve on her own. It’s June and the Colorado Rockies rookie outfielder, Yonel Ruiz, is tearing-up the league. He can do it all from being on a record pace homer wise and driving in runs to throwing out base runners on the paths. He is also a media sensation because of his perilous journey out of Cuba.

What the public does not know is that Ruiz is being blackmailed by the Venezuelans who smuggled him out of Cuba. Tate has been told by Ruiz that his family is being held hostage in Havana. They want him to set up a deal where his salary of 50 million dollars paid over six years goes into an account the kidnappers’ control. He will be given an allowance so he can keep up appearances. Should he fail to agree to do this in the next two weeks. They will start killing his family including his daughter, wife, parents, siblings, etc.

Ruiz’s only contact is with staff of the Colorado Rockies and Tiff Tate, his stylist. The kidnappers won’t allow him to meet with others and most likely have operators in the area watching him. So, with the Bay Dogs soon headed to Denver to play the Rockies, Tate wants Adcock to try and find out who these Venezuelans are. Once he identifies them then Tate will try to work directly with them to resolve the problem. If MLB gets involved they will do what is best for the sport and not the player. She will resort to involving MLB if she has to, but intended to give Adcock a week to work the case.

While Adcock is well aware that he can’t do much, he agrees to do what he can. Ruiz isn’t the only one being threatened as Adcock quickly finds out.  It is a far reaching mess that could have a huge impact on baseball in the future. It does not help that those at the upper reaches of MLB very much want Adcock to get out of the private investigator business and that is way before the bodies start dropping.

Double Switch builds on the events of The Setup Man in a strong way. Adcock is a year closer to the end of pitching in the majors and he very well knows it. A future beyond baseball is on his mind, but he isn’t about for one second to give up on what he loves which is playing baseball.

In addition to the complicated mystery, T. T. Monday brings readers well familiar with baseball or not at all right along for a ride through the clubhouses and the underworld of how Latin American players make it into the show. He has a rare gift of making baseball accessible to the novice as well as the experienced fan as part of the overall mystery.  As he did with the first book, T. T. Monday shines a light into the less glamorous aspects of a sport he clearly loves.

Double Switch could be read as a stand-alone, but it really should be read after one reads The Setup Man. The sacrifices of family continue to play a role in Adcock’s life as do other elements carried over from the first book. Double Switch is a good read and an excellent sequel.

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Public Library System.

Kaye George first reviewed The Setup Man as part of her ongoing “Monday With Kaye” segments back on in March 2015. Because of her review I hunted down the book at my local library and reviewed it a month later. It is because of Kaye George’s review that I made the time to read this series so you know now who to blame. 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016

Season Over

Thank you Texas Rangers for another wild season. Congratulations to the Toronto Blue Jays for coming back from a 2-0 deficit to win three games straight and take the series.

Rangers Lose---Again

Whatever momentum they had when they came home is now long gone as the Texas Rangers lost again today to Toronto. With the series knotted at 2, game five is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

GO RANGERS!!!!!

RANGERS WIN!!

Rangers WIN and take a two nothing lead over Toronto. WooHoo!!!!!!

Rangers WIN the PENNANT!

Rangers clinch the American League West Division Pennant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Review: "The Setup Man" by T. T. Monday (aka Nick Taylor)

The appeal for me is the same as it ever was. Playing a child’s game for money can be hard on your self-respect. Even now, I’m still not a doctor or a diplomat, but I’m more than I was. I’m more than a guy on a bench cracking seeds, waiting for a lefty to bat in the eighth.

God help me if a man’s not entitled to that. (Page 5)

Johnny Adcock is 35 and for more than a decade he has a secondary career to fall back on when his playing days are over. Major League Baseball these days is primarily made up of situational players who come in and out for this situation or that. Johnny Adcock is one of those guys as he has a very simple job as “the setup man.” He is the guy who comes in during the eighth inning to pitch to one guy, usually a lefty, in a pressure situation with men on base to get the out.  If he does his job right in getting the out and preserving the potential win, the closer comes in to deal with the final few batters and finish the game on a winning note. Being 35 Adcock knows his playing days are numbered and that the money, 1.5 million a year, is really good for the amount of work he has to do. He has a lot of idle time to fill when he isn’t on the field and his secondary career is a great fit. It kind of came about by accident, but he really enjoys moonlighting as a private detective. Ball players frequently need a private detective and the word among his fellow players is out about Johnny and his second career.

Johnny plays for “The Bay Dogs of San Jose” and the backup catcher is a guy named Frankie Herrera. Frankie has a big problem regarding his wife and does not want it getting out. Adcock is discrete, but telling him and letting him see the evidence is very hard on Frankie. Way back in the day before they were married, Maria, was a stripper in the clubs. When money was really short she took the next logical step and made some very adult movies. One of the videos is now up on a free porn site on the internet. If Frankie and his wife Maria didn’t have two twin boys who will be five in the fall it might not matter so much. But, they do and Frankie does not want to the kids to ever learn what their mom did long ago.

Somebody sent the site link to Frankie’s cellphone as proof the video was out there on the internet. So far there has not been an actual request for money, but the intent is pretty clear to Frankie and his wife as well as Johnny. If Frankie wants Johnny’s help the first step is to hand the cell phone over to Adcock for as long as he needs it. Adcock will need to watch the video so that he can start trying to figure out if this is, as Adcock suspects, an extortion/black mail attempt. It seems like the typical “rip the ball player off” type case that Johnny has seen quite a few times before. But, there is nothing typical about this one as things very quickly escalate with a murder and more.

Those who are baseball fans will really enjoy The Setup Man as there are numerous references to living and past players, teams, and more. Baseball becomes a significant secondary character in the book while never burying the main storyline of the mystery. Billed as a thriller by the publisher, the book is more of a mystery that quickly expands in depth as the tale featuring plenty of interesting characters, a variety of detailed settings, and lots of complexity unfolds. The various storylines combine together in The Setup Man making it a read that keeps the reader solidly entertained from start to finish. 

The Setup Man

T. T. Monday (aka Nick Taylor)

http://www.ttmonday.com

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/blogs/b/on-the-page?i=35

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Doubleday)

http://www.doubleday.com

March 2014

ISBN# 978-0-385-53845-9

Hardback (e-book, audio, and paperback also available)

274 Pages

$24.99

Material was picked up to read and review via the Plano Public Library System because Kaye Gorge wrote about it last month in one of her “Monday With Kaye” review segments.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015

Monday With Kaye: "The Setup Man" by T. T. Monday (Review by Kaye George)

Kaye George returns for another “Monday With Kaye” segment that has quickly become one of the more popular ones on the blog. This week she considers The Setup Man by T. T. Monday…..

The Setup Man by T. T. Monday

Don’t shy away from this mystery if you’re not a baseball fan. The industry is seamlessly interwoven into the story and you’ll pick up all you need to know without any effort. If you are a baseball fan, dive in headfirst.

Johnny Adcock is a setup man for the San José Bay Dogs baseball team. A setup man, in modern baseball, is a pitcher who is called in for only a few pitches and not in every game. And he hardly ever bats. He has plenty of free time and gets paid more money than he knows what to do with. So he does private investigating in his off time, a profession he fell into but now loves.

The team’s backup catcher, a young, genuinely nice kid named Frankie Herrera approaches Adcock to solve his problem: some porno films his wife made before they were married. When Frankie is killed in a car accident soon after that, the whole mess doesn’t smell right. Adcock swings into action, assembling his off-diamond team, a rainbow mix of oddballs. He soon discovers that what he knows is the tip of a very deep, very dirty iceberg. Toss in his ex-wife and fourteen-year-old daughter, and you’re in for a good read.

This is the author’s first thriller, but I hope it’s not his last.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of Death in the Time of Ice for Suspense Magazine

 

Review: "The 50 Greatest Players in New York Yankees History" by Robert W. Cohen

The 50 Greatest Players in New York Yankees History is a 300 page book that opens with “Introduction: The Yankee Pedigree” before covering the top 50 players. The introduction covers the Yankee beginnings in Baltimore, the move to New York in 1905, the move to the Polo Grounds in 1915, and the storied success in the following decades. That history is brought forward to the super stars of today in an overview format before covering the author's decision making process in ranking players.

Three factors weighed into the author's decision making process. He considered the “Level of Dominance” a player achieved with the team such as batting tiles, pitching awards, or some other offensive or pitching statistic. That same type of information was considered internally to determine how a player ranked among his other Yankee players when factoring in the era the player performed in as clearly, over time, baseball is a very fluid sport with numerous changes in the players and the game itself over the years. Also important was how much the player impacted the team on and off the field and what impact his presence had on the Yankee legacy. It is worth noting that only the period a player was with the Yankees was considered for the above determinations.

By author Robert W. Cohen’s standards he determined that Number one is Babe Ruth with Dave Righetti coming in at number 50. In between are Yankee's such as Derek Jeter (number 6), Alex Rodriguez (number 12), Rich Gossage (number 36), Sparky Lyle (number 41) and many more. Each chapter covers the players biography while a Yankee as well as informative about the context of the player in history. Each chapter has a career highlights section that covers “Best Season” and “Memorable Moments/Greatest Performances” as well as “Notable Achievements.” The “Notable Achievements” section is in bullet point format and especially suitable for settling trivia arguments.

Starting on page 263 after the top 50 players, the author designates a starting team and pitching staff as well as a second team. Author Robert W. Cohen than goes on to list the next 50 players deserving of honorable mention. That includes such notables as Wally Pipp (number 52), Lou Piniella (Number 60), C.C. Sabathia (number 61), Tommy John (number 76), and Garry Sheffield (number 100). While not as comprehensive in detail as the main part of the book, each player has a listing of their stats with the team under the heading of  “Yankee Numbers” as well as their “Notable Achievements.”

Also included is a two page index of common baseball terms, a biography of the source material used in the book and a six page index. An author bio page detailing the author's baseball credentials and other accomplishments close the book.

While surprisingly void of any photographs at all, there is a wealth of information on the profiled players in The 50 Greatest Players in New York Yankees History. The book is a comprehensive educational resource for fans and non-fans of the Yankees. Those looking for scandalous details won’t find much, if any, in this book. Those looking to find more about the accomplishments of various players and the context of the time they played will find much to savor in this excellently done reference style book.

It should be noted that this is a reprint edition of a book released previously last year through another division of the same publisher. This 2013 edition of the book was done before the recent news regarding Alex Rodriguez came out regarding his use of performance enhancing drugs and other issues.

The 50 Greatest Players in New York Yankees History

Robert W. Cohen

Taylor Trade Publishing (The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.)

http://wwwrowman.com

2013

ISBN# 978-1-58979-815-1

Paperback (also available as an e-book)

300 Pages

$19.95

I received an ARC of this title due to my participation in the “LibraryThing Early Reviewers” group for my use in an objective review.  As such, my above review appeared there first before appearing here on the blog.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013