The Big Field (Hardcover)

by Mike Lupica (Author) "IF YOU WERE A SHORTSTOP, YOU ALWAYS WANTED THE BALL HIT AT YOU..." (more)
Key Phrases: Carl Hutchinson, Roger Dean, Connie Hutchinson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
For Hutch, shortstop has always been home. It's where his father once played professionally, before injuries relegated him to watching games on TV instead of playing them. And it's where Hutch himself has always played and starred. Until now. The arrival of Darryl "D-Will" Williams, the top shortstop prospect from Florida since A-Rod, means Hutch is displaced, in more ways than one. Second base feels like second fiddle, and when he sees his father giving fielding tips to D-Will--the same father who can't be bothered to show up to watch his son play--Hutch feels betrayed. With the summer league championship on the line, just how far is Hutch willing to bend to be a good teammate?

Mike Lupica returns to the big field for the first time since his #1 New York Times bestseller Heat and delivers a feel-good home run, showing how love of the game is a language fathers and sons speak from the heart.

Q&A with Mike Lupica

Q: Where did the idea for The Big Field come from?

A: If it has one starting point, it was when Alex Rodriguez came to the Yankees and left shortstop to play third base. It wasn't so much that Rodriguez was the best all-around player in baseball at the time. It was that I knew he'd always thought of himself as a shortstop. I'm not sure he still doesn't think of himself as a shortstop. And suddenly he was a third baseman. Hutch isn't the best player in this book; Darryl Williams is. But Hutch had been a shortstop his whole life, it defined him as a ballplayer, and now because of the presence of Darryl on their American Legion team, he has to go to second base. It's the starting off point in a book that is ultimately about fathers and sons. But it's about a player having to leave his best position for the good of his team.

Q: In The Big Field, the emotional heart of the story is Keith "Hutch" Hutchinson's relationship with his father, a washed-up ballplayer and former boy phenomenon who never advanced past the minor leagues and who completely soured on the game, setting the stage for a distant relationship with his son. Why did you decide to focus on the father-son dynamic in this novel?

A: Sometimes with fathers and sons, when they can't communicate, they fall back on sports. It is like some universal language for fathers and sons. But at the start of The Big Field, Hutch and his dad don't even have that. And their journey, both of them, and I think it's a great journey, is finding that language again, finding a bond they never really lost. And finding each other.

Q: Can you offer any advice for aspiring sports writers?

A: Read the best guys, in books and newspapers and magazines. And then find ways to write. Write for the school paper, write anywhere you can, but write. I believe strongly that if you have the talent and the spirit, somebody will find you.

Q: When writing a young character do you find yourself looking back to yourself at that age? Or your children?

A: I look back to myself, and remember how important sports were to me, the fellowship, just the sheer fun of having a game with my buddies even if it wasn't organized. I tell people all the time that I still go to games thinking I might see something I've never seen before. I still have that feeling. But more than that, I see sports through the eyes of my children, too. See what they think is good, or cool, or worth watching. See what excites them. They've made me smarter about sports, they really have. But then that always happens when you hang around smart people.

Q: Have you started working on your next book? Can you give us a sneak peak?

A: My next book is already finished. It's about a young foster child, and his love for baseball. He's a catcher. And I think you're going to like him. The book is called "Safe at Home." The book I'm writing right now is my first soccer book. That's all I'm going to tell you!

Review
Lupica offers another heartwarming, action-packed, sports-savvy novel. -- School Library Journal

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Philomel (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399246258
• ISBN-13: 978-0399246258
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #235,962 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "FOR EVERY KID WHO LOVES BASEBALL & EVERY ADULT WHO STILL DREAMS!", March 5, 2008

By	Rick Shaq Goldstein "Rick Shaq Goldstein" (Danville, Ca, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Keith "Hutch" Hutchinson is a 14 year old boy who lives in Florida, but you'd be more accurate to say he lives in a world of baseball. Hutch eats, sleeps, drinks and plays baseball. And he prides himself on being "OLD-SCHOOL"! Nowadays kids wear two batting gloves at a time, Hutch doesn't wear any, and he also wears his red stirrup socks high, all strictly "OLD-SCHOOL". Other kids perform dances that would shame Terrell Owens after a good play or big hit. When Hutch hits a homerun he quickly runs around the bases so as not to embarrass the other team. Hutch is definitely "OLD-SCHOOL"! "Hutch knew he loved baseball more than anybody he knew, on his current team, or any team he'd ever played on, loved the history of it, loved the stats and the numbers and the way they connected the old days to right now." (NOTE: Take Hutch's name out and put my name in when I was 14 and you wouldn't have to change a word!") This story is built around the Boynton Beach Post 226 Cardinals American Legion Team and their quest for the opportunity to play for the state championship, which would enable them to play on "THE-BIG-FIELD" at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, where the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins play their spring training games.

There are a number of sub-plots in this wonderfully written homage to young American boys whose dreams of playing baseball invade every thought they possess. I know how accurate the author's descriptions are since my entire childhood through adulthood was filled with these very same dreams. Hutch, until this summer season was always the star shortstop on every team he played on, but the Cardinals had a player by the name of Darryl Williams, that played shortstop, and batted like the almighty himself had created him specifically for this task, and every motion at bat or in the field were almost an effortless success. For the good of the team, Hutch moved to second base despite the fact that shortstop was his pre-ordained position. Carl Hutchinson, Hutch's Father, had been the greatest boyhood shortstop in the town's history. Carl had signed a big league contract out of high school and played minor league ball in the Atlanta Braves farm system, but he never made it to the big leagues and the reason was an untold story in the family. Because of this there seemed to be an unspoken wall between Father and son. As circumstances present themselves during the Cardinal's run at the championship, Hutch feels pangs of alienation with his Father, and one of the greatest lines in the book, which I believe every Father and every son have probably said, thought, or felt, a number of times during their lifetime: "BEFORE HUTCH WALKED OUT THE FRONT DOOR HE LEANED AGAINST IT, CLOSED HIS EYES, AND WISHED HE COULD HAVE SPENT JUST ONE DAY WITH HIS DAD WHEN HIS DAD WAS YOUNG."

This book is almost prose to anyone that not only played baseball but "LOVED" baseball. Another wonderful thing about this book is that I highly recommend it to kids from ten-years-old to kids of one-hundred-years-old. It is a perfect gift for a Father to give to a son, and a perfect gift for a son to give a Father.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For the love of the game, October 13, 2008

By	J. Green (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

Fourteen-year-old Keith "Hutch" Hutchinson loves baseball, and he loves being the shortstop, the guy in the middle of all the action. Unfortunately, he's been moved to second base to make room for Darryl Williams, a kid with tons of talent but not the best attitude. But Hutch is still the team captain and he takes baseball seriously. He's a good team player, he works hard and doesn't show off, even when he hits a home run. His dream is to attend a private baseball school up north and make it to the major leagues. His father was a star player in his day as well, but he missed his chance and doesn't offer Hutch any encouragement, not wanting his son to put all his hopes in one long-shot basket. It bothers Hutch that his father isn't more involved with him, but it's too much when he shows up early for practice one day and finds his father coaching and giving pointers to Darryl.

My son who loves baseball and I read this together. Even though Hutch's passion for baseball is obsessive, there was plenty to relate to here. My hope was that it would give my son an idea of how a baseball player should *think* on the field, but while the story is heavy on jargon it's a bit light on fundamentals. It's also pretty long (or at least *felt* that way) and not always the most interesting read. The conflicts with his father and with Darryl offered some fairly interesting plots, and some of the scenes during games were quite exciting and dramatic, but overall it felt kind of formulaic and like it just wasn't a very substantial story. We both liked it, but it wasn't real high on our list.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars J. Casey's Book Review, April 10, 2008

A Kid's Review

In the fascinating story of The Big Field, Mike Lupica shows a lot of breath-taking moments on the field, as well as problems off the field. Thirteen-year-old Hutch Hutchinson is a great shortstop, after all, his idol, Derek Jeter, is a shortstop and his dad almost made it to the big leagues as a shortstop. But when one of the best shortstops in the state joins the team, Hutch is forced to play second base. He is disappointed but that is only the beginning of the many disasters that happen to him.

The Big Field is one of the many great stories that Mike Lupica has to give. He keeps the problems coming and while using third person he makes you feel bad for Hutch, when he makes an error. This is a book for baseball fans young and old and for people who are disagreeing.