Play Ball

What does a baseball team, dedicated sports fans, a business franchise that does lube, oil and filters in vehicles, and a business venture in China that captures the interest of the security wing of the State Department of the U.S. have in common? It's a tapestry of notable characters created by Michael Radowitz in his new work of fiction, "Play Ball." Some of those characters interact among the areas of interest mentioned above, either by association or through family. There is Vinnie Bosco, baseball manager of the Memphis Springfields, a ballclub in Tennessee whose progress we follow throughout the book, who finds himself attracted to his all-business woman accountant from a CPA firm in Memphis in a way that is somewhat disturbing to him considering he is a married man.There is Andrew Bosco, Vinnie's brother who owns a chain of St. Louis-based Rapid Lube outlets that do oil- changes, and has his own family, complete with marital problems that stem from his wife. Perhaps if he spent more time with his family, and less time with his business?There is Peter McMallon, a Memphis-based hundreds-millionaire who is a half-owner in the Memphis Springfields who also owns, among his other holdings, a nationwide business comprised of farm tractor dealerships that also sell the farm implements and other agricultural supply needs, and who hooked Andrew Bosco up with the Memphis Chamber of Commerce. Later on, he brings Andrew in with him in his agricultural business venture in China that comes under question.And there is Andrew Kessler, who's a die-hard baseball fan and a New Jersey suburbanite who has his boss at a New Jersey-based Fortune-500 sporting goods company wondering sometimes when Andrew ever gets work done as a manager in the company's tax department. Andrew, and Don Blaustein, who works in marketing, spend a lot of time together during working hours on fantasy baseball and talking about games won and lost.And there are all the other characters who are notable, noticeable, and who make their own mark amidst the main characters and the general public in this tapestry that Michael Radowitz has formed amidst the balls and strikes, and the managerial and financial aspects of the game that is the driving force behind this book."Play Ball" also plays up the underside of sports in America as the opium of the masses, the makers of professional athletes who bask in glory for a short while and get discarded when used up, and that turns out a product that, like entertainment in general, cannot be exported once the product is made, unless it comes out on video. And by the end of the book, some readers may be stunned by international political forces that wait like vultures to exploit the diverted attentions of the American people in general. Those who have read Michael Radowitz's previous works-"The Server Room Chronicles," "The Local Adventures of Danny McCourt," and "A Commuter's Tale"- and who have waited for his next book to come out, will not be disappointed in his most recent work here.