Courtland's Spirits: A Carol for the National Pastime [Paperback]

Donald Lehmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2001

John Courtland, the Scrooge-like owner of the Central City Champs thinks he knows the National Pastime. He lets the baseball men make the baseball decisions while he concerns himself with TV revenues, season ticket sales, merchandising deals, skyboxes, lawyers and agents and escalating player salaries. Thats what owners do. They count the money. And thats what baseball is all about. Money. His eight-year-old grandson, Jordan, lives in a world in which baseball is an activity run by grownups. Its all about official rules, official distances, and official uniforms. Its about playing in front of your parents and running laps for your coaches and selling candy bars to raise money. Its a pastime thats directed, organized and scheduled by grownups to entertain other grownups at hours convenient to those grownups. That baseball.Courtlands Spirits is the story of what happens when John Courtland meets the Spirits of Baseball Past, Baseball Present, and Baseball Future, and how it affects him, his team, and those around himfrom his whining star pitcher to his grandson Jordan. He learns what all of us have always known but are constantly forgettingbaseball is about HITTINGPITCHING RUNNING FIELDINGTHROWING

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donald Lehmann is a dispatcher in Mokena, and has no connection to baseball, no special expertise or inside knowledge of the game. His credentials for writing Courtlands Spirits derive from a lifetime of following a team that hasnt won a championship since 1917.A graduate of Knox College and the Iowa Writers Workshop, he taught at Parsons College, then worked as a systems analyst in Chicago. In recent years he has worked as a training developer, writing courses in video, text, and computer-based formats for corporate clients. He has been downsized more than once, and has used the subsequent periods of unemployment/underemployment to write fiction.His children and grandchildren live in Massachusetts and Illinois.

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (October 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595198597
• ISBN-13: 978-0595198597
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,109,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)