Waiting for Teddy Williams

In "one of the funniest and most heartfelt baseball stories in recent memory" (Publishers Weekly), Howard Frank Mosher returns to Kingdom Common, Vermont, to spin a touching coming-of-age tale in an America that has almost disappeared. From this remote village, noted for its fervent devotion to the Red Sox, comes Ethan “E.A.” Allen, a young man with a chance to change baseball history. Homeschooled, fatherless, and living on the wrong side of the tracks, E.A. is haunted by a dark mystery in his family’s past until a drifter named Teddy arrives in his life, determined to teach E.A. everything he knows about baseball.
Filled with an engaging array of rambunctious, memorable characters and brimming with faith, Waiting for Teddy Williams is an irresistible read that reminds us that dreams—no matter how far-fetched—sometimes do come true.

In "one of the funniest and most heartfelt baseball stories in recent memory" (Publishers Weekly), Howard Frank Mosher returns to Kingdom Common, Vermont, to spin a touching coming-of-age tale in an America that has almost disappeared. From this remote village, noted for its fervent devotion to the Red Sox, comes Ethan “E.A.” Allen, a young man with a chance to change baseball history. Homeschooled, fatherless, and living on the wrong side of the tracks, E.A. is haunted by a dark mystery in his family’s past until a drifter named Teddy arrives in his life, determined to teach E.A. everything he knows about baseball.
Filled with an engaging array of rambunctious, memorable characters and brimming with faith, Waiting for Teddy Williams is an irresistible read that reminds us that dreams—no matter how far-fetched—sometimes do come true.

Publishers Weekly

New York baseball fans won't like this book at all. In Mosher's ninth novel (after The True Account), one of the funniest and most heartfelt baseball stories in recent memory, the Boston Red Sox beat the Yankees to win their division, then go on to whip the Mets to win the World Series. Eight-year-old Ethan "E.A." Allen lives in the rural Vermont village of Kingdom Common. Redheaded, fatherless and home-schooled, E.A. longs to do two things in life-play baseball for the Red Sox and find out who his father is. E.A. is raised on a run-down farm by his smart, cheerful mother, Gypsy Lee, who writes wacky country-and-western songs, and his grandmother, a mean old biddy who swears Bucky Dent's home run in 1978 put her in a wheelchair for life. One night a drifter called Teddy with a mysterious connection to the Allen family shows up at the farm, and soon he's giving E.A. tips on batting, fielding and baserunning. Nine years later and after countless adventures, E.A. is a hotshot pitcher. Aided by Teddy and Cajun Stan the Baseball Man, E.A. ends up pitching for the nearly deflated and defunct Red Sox. His big league adventures are a riotous string of baseball antics involving even more screwball characters like the Sox manager, Legendary Spence, whose talking macaw, Curse of the Bambino, sits on his shoulder in the dugout and torments him by saying, "New York Yankees, number one." This is a baseball fantasy, a warm and hilarious tale of dreams come true. Agent, Dan Mandel. (Aug. 18) Forecast: Mosher is a bookseller's dream, embarking on a coast-to-coast tour every year. This year he's bringing a slide show with him, dubbed "Baseball and the Writing Life," and should win over more diehard fans, even far from his New England stomping grounds. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

HOWARD FRANK MOSHER is the author of ten books, including Waiting for Teddy Williams, The True Account, and A Stranger in the Kingdom, which, along with Disappearances, was corecipient of the New England Book Award for fiction. He lives in Vermont.