An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

1999 IRA Children's Book Award

A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book

 

When preacher's boy Luke Bledsoe steps on a baseball field, he discovers he has real pitching talent. For once, he can be proud of being left-handed. But Reverend Bledsoe believes that the left side is the side of Satan and the baseball field is the Devil's playground. Luke has spent his whole life trying to please his father. Will he choose to give up the game he's come to love—or turn his back on his family?