The End of Baseball: A Novel by
Peter Schilling
Great Fiction That Happens To Be About Baseball
Hungry for a pennant, young Veeck jettisons the teams white players and
secretly recruits the legendary stars of the Negro Leagues, fielding a club
that will go down in baseball annals as one of the greatest ever to play the
game. Here are the behind-the-scenes adventures that bring this dream to
reality, and a cast of characters only historys pen could create: the players
themselves-the tragic Josh Gibson, the remarkable but self-centered
Satchel Paige, the Cuban wonder Martin Dihigo, the veteran stalwarts Cool
Papa Bell, Willie Wells, and Buck Leonard, and the rising stars Roy
Campanella, Artie Wilson, and Dave Barnhill--plus Walter Winchell,
Kenesaw Mountain Landis, and J. Edgar Hoover! The End of Baseball is
the most rollicking, free-spirited baseball yarn in years, the unvarnished
truth of that incredible season and the men who lived it.

Personal Review: The End of Baseball: A Novel by Peter
Schilling
Peter Schilling brings back the game of baseball complete with the
personalities, the idiosyncrasies, the after hours stories and all of the fun
that this sport once had. This is an amazing novel that just sucks you in
and doesn't let go. I couldn't wait to find time every day to continue my
reading. It is somewhat unique in its use of historic information and mixing
of baseball story fiction. In it, Schilling has captured an era in the sport just
as African Americans are beginning to be "allowed" into the game. But in
this story, not just one Black ballplayer is in the Majors, an entire team is
being moved up.
Schilling has written an enjoyable and moving story that shows many of
the great Negro League players coming together and playing in the Major
Leagues on the same team: Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige among them.
The antics of Bill Veech Jr. contribute to the main storyline and how the
difficulties from the all White league and their overbearing Commissioner
continually throw up barriers to the entry of this special team on the
hallowed Fields.
In addition to the game of baseball, the societal ills of the general
population and the mind games of J Edgar Hoover, himself, are all part of
the plot. This is a slice of Americana; America going through the pain of
WWII with their boys of summer as their only distraction. Only this
summer has the potential of bringing out real change for the sport. Bill
Veech, Jr., is the man trying against all odds, fictitious and historic, to keep
the team together against the powers of baseball and others desperately
trying to keep the status quo. This is a baseball story for the ages. A
terrifically different novel for anyone tired of the same old stuff.
I was amazed at how perfectly interwoven truth and fiction were done by
Schilling. The character studies are on target and made a part of the story
blurring the lines of fact and fiction like nothing I'd ever read in the world of
baseball writing. The ending is beautiful and fulfilling. I am giving it my
hearty recommendation of 5 stars. There just isn't much not to like.
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