John R. Tunis wrote baseball books for pre-teen readers, set in baseball's Golden Age, the 1940s and 50s. His books have been praised as some of the best baseball fiction, regardless of the target age group.
Our junior high library had some Tunis paperbacks, and everyone who had even a casual interest in baseball read "The Kid From Tomkinsville."
In a Tunis story, a rookie pitcher, the twelfth guy on the staff who rarely got into a game, would make an emergency start and pitch his team to a decisive victory.
Royals pitcher Nate Adcock, the kid from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, got the call this afternoon, replacing Felipe Paulino who was scratched with back spasms. He gave up two runs in five-plus innings and left with a 4-2 lead, but would not become a real-life Tunis hero.
The Tigers scored three in the eighth, on two out doubles by Victor Martinez and Wilson Betemit, and prevailed 5-4.
Our friends the Ferrets also helped the cause, by beating the White Sox 7-6 in Chicago. The loss drops them back into third place, six games out.
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The Indians started tonight's game in August, and finished it in September.
First pitch, 7:05 PM on August 31. Last pitch, three minutes past midnight on the first.
Jack Hannahan, who accounted for two Tribe runs with solo homers, singled in Cord Phelps in the bottom of the sixteenth for a 4-3 win (Indians five and a half out).
Follow Hannahan's play lately, and you'd think you were looking at Brooks Robinson.
The Tigers drafted him, in 2001. Traded him to the A's in 2007 for first baseman Jason Perry, who never played for them at the major league level.
And that's one reason why, as they stumble towards another September stretch run, they start a third baseman with a .254 slugging percentage.
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The Indians started tonight's game in August, and finished it in September.
First pitch, 7:05 PM on August 31. Last pitch, three minutes past midnight on the first.
Jack Hannahan, who accounted for two Tribe runs with solo homers, singled in Cord Phelps in the bottom of the sixteenth for a 4-3 win (Indians five and a half out).
Follow Hannahan's play lately, and you'd think you were looking at Brooks Robinson.
The Tigers drafted him, in 2001. Traded him to the A's in 2007 for first baseman Jason Perry, who never played for them at the major league level.
And that's one reason why, as they stumble towards another September stretch run, they start a third baseman with a .254 slugging percentage.
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