Title: Blockade BillyAuthor: Stephen King
First Published: May 25, 2010
Publisher: Scribner
Pages: 132
Genre: Horror, Short Stories, Sports
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating:
Synopsis:
From New York Times bestselling author Stephen King comes the haunting story of Blockade Billy, the greatest Major League baseball player to be erased from the game.
Even the most die-hard baseball fans don’t know the true story of William “Blockade Billy” Blakely. He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first--and only--player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game’s history.
Every effort was made to erase any evidence that William Blakely played professional baseball, and with good reason. Blockade Billy had a secret darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today. His secret was much, much worse... and only Stephen King, the most gifted storyteller of our age, can reveal the truth to the world, once and for all.
Review
I’ll be completely honest with you all: I know absolutely nothing about baseball and have never been a very big fan of watching sports. So then why would I read a novella about a topic I don’t care about? Blockade Billy was originally published as a standalone novella to go along with the 2010 MLB season and was later collected in the anthology The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, which is how I ended up reading it.
It was difficult for me to understand all of the baseball jargon, as expected, and I was just bored out of my mind. It’s not that the writing was bad, in fact it was actually extraordinarily well written and that kept me reading to see where the story was going. I would imagine that a baseball fan would probably appreciate it. The narration gives an authentic 1950’s announcer feel, fast paced and loaded with action, which also makes this an interesting piece about the time period.
Sadly I just couldn’t get past the issue of my lack of baseball knowledge, making the story only lukewarm to me for a large part of it. When the plot really started to get rolling and I got an idea as to where it was going it got really interesting which brought my rating up. It had that touch of darkness that King always brings to his stories.
I wish I could have liked this more, I really do. If I was a baseball fan I probably would have loved this given the superb writing and historical references. For those that do have an appreciation for baseball, however, this novella is definitely worth checking out.
Quote
“The game was played hard in those days, Mr.King, with plenty of fuck-you.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Stephen King
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories. In the fall of 1971, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co., accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time. He has since published over 50 books and has become one of the world’s most successful writers. King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts.
Stephen lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. They are regular contributors to a number of charities including many libraries and have been honored locally for their philanthropic activities.
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