The Big Field

Title: The Big Field
Author:Mike Lupica
Reviewer:Austin.T
Summary:
The big field is about a baseball player named Keith "Hutch" Hutchinson who plays for the Boynton Beach Cardinals.
All of his life he has been a shortstop on every baseball team he has ever played for. The book starts out with the cardinals, facing the Palm Beach Yankees to move on to the Florida State Regionals. Over the summer the Cards main shortstop hadn't been Hutch, but, it had been Daryl "D-Will" Williams. Heading into their next game. Coach Cullen for the next few games wanted to nominate a team captain and Hutch was voted by his whole team to be the captain, and when the whole team was chanting "Hutch, Hutch" he saw Daryl walking to the bench; picked his gear and went home.So a very big part of the story is about Hutch attempting to become friends with Daryl.
Now not only was Hutch trying to become friends with Daryl, but he was also trying to become friends with his dad. When his dad was Hutch's age, he was the captain of the Little League World Series Florida team. After winning the title, he got a scholarship to play baseball in college(the book doesn't say the college) and after that he got drafted by the NY Yankees and only got to Single A ball.
Later, he got signed with the Twins, but could only make to Triple A, not the majors. So his dad has 3 jobs and is always heart- broken(although you can never tell) that he didn't make the majors.In the book he grows closer to his dad and he starts to become great friends with Daryl. Their team gets to the Championship Game at Roger Dean Field(Spring Training for the Marlins) and it's the first year the Championship is being televised.D-will hit the game winning homer, but Hutch didn't care, because for the first time in a long long time he saw his father in the stands gave him a hug, and his father hugged back.

Picture from http://www.amazon.com/

Last Shot

Title: Last Shot
Author: John Feinstein
Reviewer: Kevin
Last Shot is a compelling and just a book that makes you want to keep reading. Honorary author John Feinstein draws you into yet another great book.
Young aspiring sports journalist Stevie Thomas receives a letter from the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) that he, along with another contestant, has won the contest in which they have entered. The prize that they receive is media passes to the Final Four in New Orleans, Louisiana. He knew that Duke, Minnesota State University (MSU), Connecticut, and St. Joe's were in the Final Four and was excited to go. When they finally met in the hotel lobby in Louisiana, they seemed to be almost completely opposite. She liked Duke, he liked St. Joe's, she was tall, and he wasn't. But when they are roaming the hotel grounds they over hear people talking, they listen in. When they hear the star player of MSU, Chip Graber, being blackmailed, they know they have to get over their differences and work as a team.
When they discreetly surpass the security in the players' hotel acting as Chip's cousins, they get to have a two on one talk with Chip Graber the winner of the Naismith, the award that goes to the best college basketball player in one season. After they talk to him and he accepts their plea for help, they couldn't help being proud of themselves for outsmarting security guards and having the reward of talking to the best college basketball player in the country. When they get closer and closer to finding out who is behind all of it, the mystery takes an unexpected turn. Want to find out what it is? You have to read the book!

Picture from Amazon.com