Higher Ground

About the Book

In ´64 Thomas Foote was twenty-two, working nights, hanging sheetrock in a Philadelphia high rise during the hottest September of the century. Ten blocks away the Phillies were in the middle of the greatest collapse in baseball history.

The Daily News headline was always the same-"Phils´ blow another one!". Thomas couldn´t sleep. Garbage stank in the alley. His infant daughter wouldn´t stop crying. His mind was stuck in some merciless loop. He could only stop thinking about the Phillies by reviewing his own stillborn pitching career.

Thirty-five years later Thomas has raised his daughter and a son besides. He´s an engineer who´s built bridges and libraries. He even learned a knuckle-ball, which kept him pitching semi-pro for almost twenty years.

But this summer has brought another slump. He´s invested heavily in a moribund development property. He´s lost most of his engineering clients because he´s obsessed with re-building an old water wheel. He can´t marry Sheila (the headstrong horse trainer) because she´s not quite the ex-wife of his partner.

He can´t sleep again. To pass the long summer evenings he begins idly re-pitching the games of the streak against the barn door. He´s never forgotten most of the details-lineups, averages, even the beer commercials on the radio.

Gradually-inevitably perhaps-he´s stuck in another loop, out there night after night, inning after inning. Foreclosures, the water wheel, even Sheila (to her immense annoyance) fade in significance. Somehow, his only way out is to reverse the collapse of ´64.

It´s a silly idea, of course. Thomas knows that.. He´s had others-the treehouse, the sunflower farm. He´ll simply pitch his way through.

The stakes change, however, when Skipper Rideaux suddenly appears one warm June night and makes a game saving catch at the end of the driveway.

Skipper is, in fact, a former shortstop (besides doing play-by-play for the Phils in ´64). He´s also a former barnstormer, boozer, and raconteur. He´s got a million stories. He´s caroused with Babe Ruth and fought with Leo Durocher. He´s great company. Unfortunately, he´s also been dead for eighteen years.

Suddenly saving the pennant may be a lot less important. Or maybe much more! Has Skipper appeared to salvage something of his own? Or has he come to help Thomas-with detours through old gin games, Ella Fitzgerald concerts, a road trip stopped by a Wisconsin snow drift, and the nature of the universe-to higher ground?

About the Author

David Burkey lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware with his wife Anita and daughter Nicole. Other novels include Rain Lover (Ballantine Books 1986), Apache Toe (Xlibris, 2001).