Brief

Historian Frank Aldridge receives a letter from a girl, Lita Lawson, asking for help: she needs to find out more about a forgotten baseball player, Ray Cavanaugh, who may also be her father. While Frank gets involved in the search, the stories of those families are connected by a past profoundly marked by racial segregation in America.

What We Liked

This story has baseball as a motif, but is a compelling and beautifully written tale about family, love, history and racial segregation in America. The shakespearean tragedy surrounding the interracial love between the talented Ray Cavanaugh and the charming Aulette Lawson is recalled along with the journey of black and white generations living through American history. This beautiful, heartfelt and compelling portrait finds redemption through the hands of Frank Aldridge, a baseball historian responsible for uniting Ray and Lita, father and daughter who never had the chance to meet.

Film: This story would be great as a film because the characters are charismatic and their journeys are consistent, their stories are compelling and also in a very coherent manner regarding their moment in history. The storyline of this book is perfectly tied.

TV: People would love to watch this adaptation for TV because it brings along the story of several generations living in the last century in America and shows, through the eyes of regular people, how deep changes needed - and still need - to happen in the country. The story is also told in a non-linear manner, which keeps it interesting and shows individuals acting in their contexts, connected to their moment in history, and is a much necessary portrait of how close racial segregation is to contemporaneity.

Key points: Compelling interracial love story; Exhilarating storyline; Consistent characters; Emotional passages; Critical view of American history

Synopsis

Frank is a research director and historian at Baseball Hall of Fame in the 60's. A father of three and a pregnant wife, his somehow dull worklife is shaken by a letter he receives from Lita Lawson, looking for a baseball player named Ray 'Rock and Fire' Cavanaugh who might also be her father.

Frank and his assistant Ron get involved in the search for this mysterious man who doesn't seem to be much liked in the baseball universe. Rough, Ray is seen by many as a violent man, but as the character's story unfolds, we are able to discover he was one of the few white baseball players who were not drowned in racial prejudice.

Frank and his assistant Ron McMasters get involved in the search for this mysterious man, and little by little, they discover more things about the life and career of this forgotten player who was also very talented.

As the search unfolds, the lives of black and white families drained in the love story of Ray, a white man, and Aulette, a black woman - and Lita's mother - are revealed. The audience finds out that story was deemed impossible due to social segregation.

As Aulette dies due to complications after giving birth to Lita, Aulette's mom, Loretta, who was never happy with the love story between Ray and her daughter, takes advantage of the absence of Ray and decides to raise their daughter, her granddaughter, in secrecy. She lets Ray know Aulette is dead, and also states that the child has died along with her mom.

To Lita, Loretta manages also to never tell the truth about her father. She decides to go after Frank after Loretta dies and she finds clues about who her father might be.

Lonnie Lawson, brother of Aulette, is also an interesting character when it comes to comparing white and black lives in the 20th century in America. Also a talented baseball player, he enlists to go to war - and Ray did the same - but Lonnie, black, is the one who ends up dying and whose life seems to be worth less in the army.

An American history of racial segregation is narrated in passages involving love, pain, violence and prejudice.

As Frank struggles with his own health - as he is diagnosed with lung cancer - a message of hope is regained when he finds out Ray is not only alive but eager to meet his daughter.

About The Author

Mark Stallard is the author of 13 books. With degrees in English and Journalism from the University of Kansas and Wichita State University, plus a Master’s degree from Baker University, Stallard has also written for numerous newspapers and publications, including The Wichita Eagle and Baseball America. He is a full-time writer living in Kansas City.