Contemporary reporter Sam Fowler, stuck in a dull job and a failing marriage, abruptly finds himself transported back to the summer of 1869. After a wrenching period of adjustment, he comes to feel rejuvenated by his involvement with the nation's first pro baseball players. He also finds his senses quickening and tastes changing as he faces life-threatening 19th-century challenges on and off the baseball diamond. Through his attachments to the ballplayers and the lovely Caitlin O'Neill, he might just regain the sense of family he desperately needs. Darryl Brock masterfully evokes post-Civil War America’s smoky, turbulent cities, the new transcontinental railroad that takes passengers over prairies and mountains to California, the dance halls and parlor houses, the financial booms and busts, and historical luminaries like Mark Twain and Jesse James. Equally appealing to sports fans and anyone who likes a good read, If I Never Get Back well deserves the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s judgment that it “hits a home run.”
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Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This highly entertaining, inherently cinematic debut blends two genres, the baseball story and the time-travel fantasy, that have been more at home on screen than on the page. The author wastes no time in establishing (or explaining) his premise; mere pages into the first chapter, Sam Fowler, a discontented journalist whose family life has disintegrated, steps off Amtrak and into 1869. Before he can get his bearings, he's a member of the Cincinnati Red Stockings, witnessing baseball in its infancy with an unbeatable team. Brock steeps his story in period detail, from the smell of kerosene in a railroad car to a daring "leg show" in old New York, and devotes long passages to early baseball lore, with play-by-play descriptions that will test the patience of non-fans. As well, he doesn't stint on the anachronistic details that always spark this kind of story: along the way, his hero invents ballpark hotdogs, the scoreboard, "Red River Valley" and the bunt. Throw in a century-spanning romance, nefarious gamblers and a cameo by Mark Twain, and the result is a winning fable about dreaming away reality that is both hokey and irresistible. 50,000 first printing; $40,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“A rawhide odyssey … meticulously historical.… By now the reader is asking ‘And then? And then?’ like a child listening to a storyteller.”
—Time
“Grabs you from line one on page one and never lets go. Enchanting.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“An engrossing, even charming tale.… By its final inning, the reader is sad to see it end.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A grand adventure and joyful embrace of baseball the way it ought to be played … If I Never Get Back should be required reading for players and owners as well as fans.”
—The Washington Times
—Time
“Grabs you from line one on page one and never lets go. Enchanting.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“An engrossing, even charming tale.… By its final inning, the reader is sad to see it end.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A grand adventure and joyful embrace of baseball the way it ought to be played … If I Never Get Back should be required reading for players and owners as well as fans.”
—The Washington Times
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Darryl Brock has hit a home run with this well-crafted time-travel novel that revisits the early years of baseball in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Brock is transported from contemporary San Francisco to 1869, where he encounters the first great professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The resulting story is engrossing and is chock full of information and lore concerning the early years of our national pastime. As a bonus, Brock writes perceptively about social and cultural customs and attitudes from this earlier time, and this renders *If I Never Get Back* more than just another baseball yarn. The romantic aspect of the story borders on the corny at times, but within the context of the overall novel a bit of schmaltz is certainly forgivable. All baseball fans with an interest both in good reading and the history of the game will enjoy this book.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
My baseball loving wife bought me this book and for years it sat on my shelf. Finally I picked it up and was enamored with it. It rekindled my love of old time baseball. I thoroughly enjoyed the depiction of George & Harry Wright along with the rest of the original Cinc. Reds. I also loved the plot line about Mark Twain and the Fenians. A few years after I read the book I visited Cooperstown and on the top floor was the very same picture of the Reds that was on the cover of the book. I had to then reread the book and enjoyed just as much. I wish brock would write another.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Ramona Honan
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Is this science fiction? It is science fiction in that If I Never Get Back is a time travel book like you have never read before. This book takes Sam Fowler from modern San Francisco back to the early days of baseball (post-Civil War) and the newly formed Cincinnati Red Stockings. What makes this book so interesting is the description of how baseball was played in 1869 - so different than what it is today even as to the way pitchers pitched.
Sam Fowler begins riding the rails with the fledgling Cincinnati Red Stockings and their trip around the U.S. to play other early baseball teams. It also goes into the atmosphere of the time, as in the description when the team played in New York City in a park that now is no more in these modern times.
Ah, but then it is also a love story. But is it unrequited love? Is it a lost love? And does Sam ever find her again?
Great baseball book and would make a great movie also.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Old Favorite
I initially bought this book likely near twenty years ago. I guess I've read once a year since then. The last time I read it this spring, the pages were falling out of my old copy. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dean J. Krebs
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow! Great read!
An absolutely ripping book; expected to dislike it and I loved it!
This could easily be brushed off as just another time-travel book, but it's much more than that. Read more
This could easily be brushed off as just another time-travel book, but it's much more than that. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Steve
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic, unique baseball book
Sam Fowler, is like many middle aged, middle class men. Stuck! His job, his relationship, his family. Nothing is quite where he wants or needs it to be. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Wayne J. Street Jr.
4.0 out of 5 stars
If I Never Get Back
If one is a fan of old time basball,or a well done fantasy, this book is a guarenteed page turner.
Published 8 months ago by Scribe
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful story, great characters,and it is about baseball!
I must admit I was a bit reticent about this book when I read the premise. I love baseball history and I am somewhat of a science fiction fan. But the combination sounded...... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Harry Lime
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great story that I read every year
Like a few others, this one of the few books that I regularly read every year. All winter long, I look forward to the springtime so I can read this again (along with Two in the... Read more
Published 12 months ago by repeathistory
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterful story
I loved this novel. It has everything a good yarn needs. It isn't just a baseball book.It is a Time Travel story, a glimpse of life in 1869, an enduring mystical love story, a... Read more
Published 12 months ago by the faunster
5.0 out of 5 stars
Darryl Brock has covered all the bases
Baseball, time travel, romance, mystery - what more could one ask for? As a dyed in the wool, life time, Cincinnati Reds(tockings) fan and an author who has used time travel more... Read more
Published 14 months ago by kenn
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely my Favorite Book
I've owned this book since it's first edition. I read it every other year...yes, a bit obsessive, but this is simply put the most favorite book on my shelf. The way Mr. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Craig
4.0 out of 5 stars
It will built up your interest in 19th century baseball
I'm not the type of person who reads fiction or novels. But I like baseball, and I thought I could try a baseball novel. Read more
Published on March 1, 2011 by Marc Ranger
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