As former Major League pitcher Jim Bouton once wrote, "You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and, in the end, it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." It's been that way for Chuck Mraz since his grandfather hung a whiffle ball from a string on a tree branch in his yard and he'd spend hours whacking it with a plastic bat.

These short stories represent Chuck's love affair with baseball. A young Little Leaguer learns that facing adversity can sometimes make victory in the end sweeter; a major leaguer nearing the end of his career must deal with his own mortality; a seemingly magical figure captivates the hearts and minds of those in a small town; a youngster's wild plan with his best friend to see his first big league game doesn't quite work out the way he thought it would; and a boy whose family moves to a new community uses baseball to make a surprising new friend.

Illustration and design credit: Megan Mraz.