This book was written during September 1992 to September 1993. I wrote it while one child napped and the other went to kindergarten. It was inspired after meeting a few minor league baseball players in the summer of 1992. My son thought they played catch funny, with a guy in the middle. The explained they were from a double-A team on their all-star break, and the guy in the center was the pitcher. They told what it was like in the minors and my son was interested for about five minutes. My interest was far greater and the next day, when I saw them again, I asked a few more questions.I realized that major league baseball was not even half the story, there was a world unknown most people

My intent was to write a short story for my own amusement but as I began to research the mysterious world of minor league baseball the story took on a life of it's own. It was a world the needed exploring filled with people who had stories that needed telling.

I had help with this story, especially in understanding the lives of people in minor league baseball. I talked to more than a few minor league managers and to minor league players. Their help was and is gratefully appreciated. I got to look inside a world that is often hidden from to the average baseball fan. To quote one of my characters -who quoted a player I interviewed -"people go to big league games to see spectacular plays. What they don't see is all the hard work that went into that play, all those years in the minors learning how to make the shoestring catch or how to seed the ball or how to throw the straight change. Yes, in every pitch, every catch, every out, that minor league time comes into play. if people see that world, then they would understand what it means to be a baseball player."

In 1994 I shopped it around and had it soundly rejected by many publishers. Too outlandish, no one would believe a girl pitcher (that was before Ila Borders) and some thought it was good, but wanted me to ratchet up the sex and violence. I politely refused and the manuscript was tucked into a drawer and not forgotten.

I put the story on line when I got a free web site with our ISP. I moved it when the ISP farmed out the web hosting and it has happily resided here since. It's been linked to by other sites and was named the on-line novel of the month many years ago by a site that no longer exists.

I get e-mails telling me how much they enjoy the story. The letters I like the best have been from teen girls at odds with their own parents. Annie's Mom is a composite of several bad mothers I have had the misfortune of knowing over the years. If these people ever read this story, they will recognize their moms. I always used these women as a bad role models whose examples I did not follow while raising my own kids.

While real people helped shape a few characters, the truth is that all characters, names and events in this story are fiction and figments of my imagination. I used a little "Twister" spinner marked with common baseball plays to assist me in making up games and plays, so none of the games or plays are taken from real games. it's all made-up.

Enjoy My tale. I got quite close to Annie over the months of writing the book. All the characters took on lives of their own, and several surprised me while writing the story. Paul, Dean and Garry all came alive in unexpected ways.