The Desperado Who Stole Baseball
“The Desperado Who Stole Baseball has it all—rich baseball lore, a rollicking Western adventure, and storytelling gold. A terrific book.”
— Mike Lupica, ESPN
The Desperado Who Stole Baseball
John H. Ritter brings the Old West to life in this prequel to The Boy Who Saved Baseball. The fate of a wild gold-mining town rests in the hands of a twelve-year-old boy with a love and instinct for baseball and the country’s most infamous outlaw, on the run and looking for peace of mind. Together, they pair up to prove that heroes can emerge from anywhere. Told in the style of Mark Twain and Gabriel García Márquez.
Order The Desperado Who Stole Baseball:
Named an American Library Association
Junior Library Guild selection for 2009.
Named a 2010 Booklist “Top 10 Sports Books for Youth” selection
Praise for The Desperado Who Stole Baseball…
“No one writes baseball books better than John H. Ritter… Part tall tale, part historical fiction—think Mark Twain describing a showdown on a baseball diamond—The Desperado Who Stole Baseball is a fast-paced story starring young Jack Dillon and his new companion, Billy the Kid. Yes, that Billy the Kid”
— Debbie Duncan, Palo Alto Weekly
“[A] wildly entertaining yarn… The story lopes along on its delightful and articulately brusque dialogue. A good child’s-eye introduction to baseball’s segregated past”
— Booklist
“Fans of John H. Ritter’s The Boy Who Saved Baseball have been waiting for this one… Ritter’s use of vibrant imagery and musical phrases places this adventure right square in the annals of the Western tall tale—you’ll want to read this one aloud, more than once.”
— Children’s Literature Review
“Ritter writes in an idiom-laden, mock-epic style full of bombast and bravado. …this tall-tale page-turner stands alone”
— School Library Journal