Just Finished Reading John Grisham's Calico Joe

Legal fiction author John Grisham doesn't always write in that genre: sometimes he goes down other paths, as he did with his 2012 baseball novel Calico Joe.  Calico Joe's title character is that of the fictional Joe Castle, a 21-year-old rookie from rural Arkansas called up from the minors to play for the 1973 Chicago Cubs.  His story is told retrospectively in the first person by Paul Tracey, who in 1973 is a Little League pitcher whose father Warren is a starter for the New York Mets...also fictional.  I say this because just about everything and everyone else in the story about the Mets and Cubs from this year are real...the National League's East Division is up for grabs with all six teams vying for the postseason. Warren Tracey is a mean-spirited, alcoholic, womanizing, and abusive father and husband...plus he has a reputation for throwing pitches at batters' heads.  When Joe Castle begins his major league career with 19 consecutive hits-at-bat, an all-time record, his popularity soars into the stratosphere even with fans of other teams rooting for his success.  And he continues to excite and inspire, both with his batting and his gracious behavior toward the public.  The Cubs in late August find themselves with a comfortable lead and are in New York for a four-game series with the second-place Mets...Tracey will pitch to Castle for the first time ever.  That game will change everything: Joe's, Warren's, and Paul's lives will never be the same again...

Calico Joe is about redemption and forgiveness, and this comes on a number of fronts.  It's a difficult story to describe without giving away the defining moment, which should be the choice of the prospective reader to make and not mine to reveal in an untimely manner.  It's a shorter tale than most of John Grisham's works and very satisfying, looking back on it.  But although of course there never really was a Joe Castle or Warren Tracey, I still have my own memory of that 1973 season.  If any teams seemed to me destined to win that East Division and go on to the playoffs, it was either the St. Louis Cardinals or Pittsburgh Pirates...but they both floundered at the end and only managed 81-81 and 80-82 records, respectively.  The Mets seemed doomed to obscurity, being stuck in last place for much of the season but put on a furious surge at the end, improbably finishing first with a paltry 82-79 record.   Yet they came within a game of winning the World Series!

Calico Joe is now one of my favorite John Grisham novels.  Why not go to the library, check it out like I did, and read it at your leisure...