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Blockade Billy [Hardcover]

Stephen King
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)


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Book Description

May 25, 2010
From New York Times bestselling author Stephen King comes the haunting story of Blockade Billy, the greatest Major League baseball player to be erased from the game.   

 

Even the most die-hard baseball fans don’t know the true story of William “Blockade Billy” Blakely. He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first--and only--player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game’s history.

Every effort was made to erase any evidence that William Blakely played professional baseball, and with good reason. Blockade Billy had a secret darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today. His secret was much, much worse... and only Stephen King, the most gifted storyteller of our age, can reveal the truth to the world, once and for all.

 

Originally published through Cemetery Dance Publications on April 20, 2010 as a $25.00 limited-edition hardcover, Stephen King and Cemetery Dance have made an arrangement with Scribner to make available a less expensive hardcover edition of Blockade Billy, with an on-sale date of May 25th, the same date the audiobook goes on sale. The Scribner edition will be available in all U.S. and Canadian retail outlets. Both the Scribner book and the Simon & Schuster audiobook will feature a bonus short story ("Morality").



Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A quirky baseball player with a past shrouded in secrecy is the tragic hero of this macabre tale from the dark side of the all-American sport. In the voice of George Granny Grantham, retired third-base coach of the New Jersey Titans, King (Under the Dome) recalls the spring of 1957, when Billy Blakely, a catcher called up from the Titans' Iowa farm system, helped to boost the team out of the basement and add some excitement to the national pastime. Billy hits with such power and guards the plate with such determination (hence his eponymous nickname) that teammates are willing to forgive such eccentricities as his frequently addressing himself in the third person, or bloodying runners who collide with him. Of course, these kinks are clues to a shocking pathology that King coaxes out in a narrative steeped so perfectly in the argot of the game and the behavior of its players and fans that readers will willingly suspend their disbelief. As King's fiction goes, this suspenseful short is a deftly executed suicide squeeze, with sharp spikes hoisted high and aimed at the jugular on the slide home. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Reviewers tended to dismiss Blockade Billy when they compared it to the sum of King's oeuvre, but they appreciated the book as a better-than-usual attempt to fictionalize the world of baseball. Readers with a more nostalgic take on the game will particularly enjoy King's evocation of the way it was played in 1957. And baseball-stats wonks will likely salivate over the mystery of what event could be so horrible that the Majors would efface the scorecard for all time. But other readers may wish to start with one of King's classics.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 132 pages
  • Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (May 25, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1451608217
  • ISBN-13: 978-1451608212
  • Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Stephen King has written some of the greatest masterpiece novels of all time, such as It, Christine and Misery. He can write a great short story too, The Mist, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption are just two examples of King's brilliance. With Blockade Billy and Morality (the other story that comes with this) your fighting a strong urge to just stop reading due to boredom, only continuing on because it's Stephen King and hey there must be at least a great scene coming up. There isn't.

Don't waste your time on what is simply a boring baseball story and another that's just trying a glorifying pointless violence to shock and be a talking point. Borrow it from the library, but don't waste any of your hard earner money obtaining these two stories that wouldn't even make the filler list in King's other short story collections.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Not good June 7, 2010
Format:Hardcover
Don't waste your money! The story of Billy Blockade was mediocre at best. I was waiting for some major twist or turn like King is known for, but it never came. To me the ending was very predicatable. My edition also contained the short story, Morality. That story can be summed up by saying it was absolutely stupid! I am one to never say this, but it seems to me that this book was just published for the money. I can figure out no other explanation becasue the stories were plain and simple bad!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars A marginally interesting, glorified short story May 31, 2010
By Jeff W.
Format:Hardcover
I love Stephen King and for decades I've been purchasing his books the moment they come out. I even ordered the limited edition of this book from Cemetery Dance so I could get the bonus baseball card. I am sad to admit that Blockade Billy is a huge disappointment. As some have noted, this is first and foremost a short story, not a novella. The trade edition comes with a "bonus" short story called "Morality", which was featured in Esquire magazine and is 52 pages long (Blockade Billy is 80). It is a tiny book with large font, which is the oldest trick in the proverbial book. I read both stories in about 40 minutes. Surprisingly I found Morality to be a lot more engaging than the titular Blockade Billy, which is a lot of build up for a mildly interesting punch-line. I'm sure King will include Blockade Billy in some future anthology and I would recommend waiting until then to read this story.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Stephen King rules!
Interesting short story. Anything by Stephen King is great, and this one was a good story. Not a horror story like some of his novels.
Published 1 month ago by Bergo
5.0 out of 5 stars Different for sure
I don't like baseball and what made me buy this is anybody's guess. I was mesmerized by it. Maybe it was the voice of the narrator? Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sue
5.0 out of 5 stars wasnt sure if I really wanted this
once I received it, it was undeniably something I needed for my collection. It was something unique and different for it.
Published 2 months ago by plastercat13
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read for baseball fans
I'm not into Stephen King - the last thing of his I read was "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon," so as you can see I'm here for the baseball hook. Read more
Published 2 months ago by smb8d
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
All items I purchase are brand new as stated, they arrive quickly, and I never have any issues when buying
Published 3 months ago by George Czerny Jr
5.0 out of 5 stars Best little book
Does Stephen King write a bad book? NO WAY... This is a great little book, very interesting and couldn't put it down until I finished.
Published 3 months ago by BBaker
5.0 out of 5 stars So pleased
Terrific book in pristine condition! Fast delivery, too. I gave these books as Christmas gifts and they were a major hit. A great buy!
Published 3 months ago by Sam Penny
4.0 out of 5 stars Baseball + Stephen King = a good TWISTED story.
This little book was in the sale bin, its cover is a Rockwellesque picture of a baseball play and it was written by one of the best writers in America - three realities that added... Read more
Published 4 months ago by YoyoMitch
5.0 out of 5 stars All Stephen King books get 5 stars
I have never read a Stephen King book that I didn't like and I have read all that he has written. As usual this one has strange twists but you can expect this from this author.
Published 4 months ago by Maryann Willis
4.0 out of 5 stars Not your usual King!
Happy to have this in my collection. It is a good read. I did not find it is his usual, but very good.
Published 4 months ago by V. Hultman
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Looking for some good WW2 espionage/thrille... novels
"Jackdaws" by Ken Follett should fit the bill nicely, even though it's a little bit racy.
Oct 5, 2011 by Stephen D. Arzberger |  See all 2 posts
Novella-Ha-Ha
Look, for a limited edition book, $32.00 is cheap. I don't care how short the book is. Another of King's short stories, "My Pretty Pony", was released in a limited edition (it was an ugly metal book) that cost several THOUSAND dollars. Most King limited editions can't be bought for... Read more
May 26, 2010 by M. SEBOURN |  See all 3 posts
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