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Title: Once Upon a Fastball
Author: Bob Mitchell
Narrator: Jim Meskimen
Format: Unabridged
Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-08-13
Publisher: Audible Studios
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:
Your legacy is in the Attic.
The words leap from the cryptic poem left for Harvard professor Seth Stein by his Papa Sol, the doting grandfather who vanished without a trace four years earlier. It was Papa Sol who instilled an unquenchable passion for baseball in Seth's soul; it was Sol who also ignited Seth's obsession with history, spinning fabulous tales of times and people long gone. And when Papa Sol disappeared, it was Seth who stepped up to the plate, caring for Sol's bewildered wife as she clung to her cherished memories.
Seth is still searching for answers when the poem - "For Setharoo, on his 50th birthday" - appears in his grandmother's home. It leads him to a scuffed, yellowed baseball, resting in a box handmade by his grandfather. Without warning, a single touch of the rough leather thrusts Seth through the swirling vortex of history onto the streets of 1950s New York and then to the greatest baseball game ever played, the Bobby Thomson "Shot Heard `Round the World" playoff classic. It is in this surreal, sepia-toned site of past glory that historian Seth begins a wondrous, life-changing odyssey that allows him to find the answers he so desperately seeks.
Suspenseful, thought-provoking, funny, and poignant , this beautifully crafted novel is a joyous tribute to our inspiring and timeless national pastime, and a rare treasure for all those who love baseball.

Members Reviews:
Pretty much for baseball fans, only
I think you will need to be a baseball fan (or fanatic!) in order to really enjoy this book. The premise is fair enough, and has possibilities, but the story just gets SO bogged down with baseball trivia that it just made my eyes glaze over. After reading a couple of paragraphs of trivia (mostly names and numbers/statistics), I just started skimming over those paragraphs - they did not further the story at all - and there were LOTS of that type of paragraph throughout the book. I also found the 'voice' in which the story was written to be very odd. I'd characterize it as 'third person present tense', and it just did not go over well. The story is told from a narrator's perspective (not a character's perspective) and all the verbs describing action are in present tense. Thus, the entire book is filled with oddities such as "Seth is walking over to the door..." or "Kate says...". While not techinically incorrect (I suppose) this is far from being the norm, and it seems that past tense (or maybe passive tense) would flow more smoothly. "Seth walked over to the door..." or "Kate said..." just seems more appropriate.
The 'DaVinci Code' bits were pretty lame and very contrived. The main character's 'epiphanies' were pretty lame and contrived, too. Maybe if the author had not been so insistent on calling them 'epiphanies', it would have been better. That particular word should be reserved for something special, not just for that imaginary lightbulb flahing on over a character's head. Unlike several of the other reviewers, I didn't object to the ending, but the whole book seemed to be a vehicle for the author to show off his knowledge of baseball lore, statistics, and culture.