Sophomore Campaign (A Mickey Tussler Novel)

Frank Nappi has followed up his coming-of-age novel The Legend of Mickey Tussler with a sequel, Sophomore Campaign. We return to Borchert Field for the second year in the young autistic pitcher's career:

It is 1949. Seventeen year old pitching phenom Mickey Tussler returns for a second season with the rejuvenated minor league Brewers. Despite Mickey’s proclamation that he will never play baseball again after last season’s violent conclusion, manager and now surrogate father Arthur Murphy, whose relationship with Mickey's mother has blossomed significantly, cajoles the emotionally fragile, socially awkward autistic boy into giving it another shot. Murph’s job is, once again, on the line. The owner’s edict is clear; win or you are gone.

The Brew Crew gets off to a fast start, with the Baby Bazooka once again electrifying the hometown fans with his incomparable pitching prowess. The Brewers seem primed to erase last year’s devastating loss to their Rival Rangers when Boxcar, the team’s starting catcher and one of the cornerstones of the club, falls ill and is replaced by Lester Sledge, a young African American ballplayer Murph pries away from a local Negro League team. Mickey has trouble dealing with loss for the first time, while Murph’s selection ignites a firestorm of controversy, beginning with the club owner who fears the public criticism. Despite Lester’s brilliance on the field, the entire team is subjected to racial threats and various episodes of violence, one (involving one of his teammates) which Mickey happens to witness. Struggling to understand the ugliness and hatred to which he has been exposed, and fearful of reprisal should he tell anyone about what he has seen, the boy’s performance on the field suffers. Mickey struggles with the weight of this dark secret, and Murph’s Brewers go into a mid-season slump; it appears as though they will finish behind the Rangers yet again, rendering Murph out of baseball forever. The only one who can save them now is their enigmatic fireballer, who must now deal with a side of human nature he scarcely understands.

Sophomore Campaign was released April 1, and is now available on Amazon.com.

At the same time, The Legend of Mickey Tussler has also been published in paperback, with a new cover. Gone is the pile of Mickey baseball cards, replaced with an old leather glove against a solid red background and white sans-serif text.

As a rule, I prefer cleaner, simpler designs, and this one is striking. It also looks much better at reduced size, which means it will stand out better on your iBooks shelf.

That almost makes up for losing the period baseball card details on the hardcover; Owgust and the (mostly-accurate) Boston Braves-inspired uniform the Brewers wore in 1948.

Congratulations, Mr. Nappi, and continued success. I look forward to reading Sophomore Campaign.

A Mile in Mickey Tussler's Shoes

In my previous review of Frank Nappi's novel The Legend of Mickey Tussler, a coming-of-age story of a young autistic pitcher joining the Milwaukee Brewers in 1948, I mentioned that I would be glad to help with the inevitable film adaptation.

That wasn't some grand leap on my part; I knew it had been optioned, but that's not surprising. Many novels get optioned, though few of those adaptations actually get made. Nappi's novel is one of them, although in its translation it has lost both the period setting and the trappings of Borchert Field. The modern-day "layton River Rats" have been substituted for the 1948 Milwaukee Brewers.

Here's the channel's press release:

Atlanta, GA (September 12, 2011) – gmc TV, America’s favorite channel for uplifting music and family entertainment, presents the GMC World Premiere Movie A Mile in His Shoes, starring Dean Cain and newcomer Luke Schroder in his debut role. Country music singer George Canyon also stars. The movie is directed by William Dear (Angels in the Outfield, Harry and the Hendersons).

Based on the critically-acclaimed book written by Frank Nappi, A Mile in His Shoes is the uplifting story of Mickey Tussler, a 17 year-old farm boy from Bargersville, Indiana with Asperger’s Syndrome and a killer fastball (Schroder), who is recruited by minor league manager Arthur "Murph" Murphy (Cain), to play for the Clayton River Rats, his struggling minor league baseball team. Murph is convinced Mickey has a gift, but his autism keeps him isolated from a world he attempts to understand. Caught between life at home with his overprotective father (Canyon) and life on the field, Mickey turns to his gift, the support of his teammates and Murph, who gives him the opportunity of a lifetime. Murph learns a few life lessons himself along the way, which help him to make peace with his family.

Sounds like they kept the bones of Nappi's story, but dropped the period setting. Shame, as I thought its setting elevated and distinguished the novel. I'm not surprised that they fictionalized the team, but they could have kept it set in the 1940s and retained a lot of Nappi's mood.

A Mile in His Shoes will air on gmc TV on Sunday, September 25 at 7 p.m. ET.

"The Legend of Mickey Tussler"

The American Association Milwaukee Brewers have been largely overlooked in baseball's remembrance. Other minor league teams of the era, such as the San Francisco Seals and Seattle Rainiers, have been memorialized for contributions to their respective cities and to the tapestry of 20th century baseball, while the Brews remain in relative obscurity.

That is beginning to change, and Milwaukee's rich baseball history is finally being recognized as such. Nowhere is that more evident than in Frank Nappi's choice to set his stirring coming-of-age story The Legend of Mickey Tussler against the backdrop of old Borchert Field in 1948.

Mickey is an Indiana farmboy with a once-in-a-generation arm, an autistic teenager at a time when the disorder was unknown to the general public and only beginning to be understood by doctors. He is battered and dismissed as a "retard" by his thuggish father, and nurtured by a mother who can't even protect herself. Mickey is balanced precariously between adolescence and adulthood, between the "normal" world outside which doesn't understand him and the farm which brings him comfort but cannot shelter his spirit, when he is accidentally discovered by Arthur Murphy, the Brewers' manager-cum-scout.

Mickey accompanies Murphy back to Milwaukee and begins his journey into the greater world around him. Murphy, for his part, sees a measure of redemption in Mickey, a chance to save the struggling ballclub while vicariously re-living his own youthful dreams cut short by injury.

At Borchert Field, Mickey finds fame and frustration, friends and enemies. His journey is reflected in those of his new teammates, who linger at their own crossroads - some on their way to making the final step up to the Bigs, some are transitioning out of the game entirely. Several respond positively to the new pitcher, while some fear and mock his disability. These conflicts build to a head as an old enemy of Murphy's resurfaces, seeking to wreak his revenge through Murphy's new protégé, and the Brewers are forced to face their preconceptions in both the dugout and the diamond.

Nappi's prose is clear and concise, and keeps the action moving right along. His choice to set in this time and this place is an inspired one. Milwaukee, like the ballplayers who played there, was at a crossroads in the late 1940s. An industrial town in an era when the End of American Industry was just over the horizon, the Cream City was outgrowing the minor leagues but hadn't made it to the Majors. Nappi captures this uneasy position with grace: a cameo by Boston Braves star Warren Spahn is at once wonderful and painful, giving the young Brewers a glimpse of the Big Leagues while reminding them (and us) that few would actually make it there.

Students of the Brews might find some of the story's elements historically jarring - the nickname "Brew Crew" wouldn't be coined for thirty years (and for another team), the Brewers weren't a Braves affiliate in the 20s, and you'd have to go a lot farther back than 1948 to find a dirt roads leading to Borchert Field. But those quibbles are minor, and entirely beside the point. The Legend of Mickey Tussler is, at its heart, a parable. The characters are drawn in very broad strokes, good is good and evil is evil. The ending is somewhat marred by a stunning deus ex machina, but the moral lesson is clear.

As such, it undoubtedly draws comparisons with the ultimate baseball parable, Bernard Malamud's The Natural. There are some thematic similarities - The Natural's Roy Hobbs was an older man trying to find his place by returning to the pursuits of his youth, while Mickey is a young man out of his element in an adult world that doesn't understand him.

Stylistically, Nappi makes the opposite tack from Malamud. Malamud's New York Knights are a a touch of fancy in a very real world, a clearly fictional team facing off against very real competition in the Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates and other National League clubs of the era. The Milwaukee Brewers of Nappi's novel are the one historically accurate element in a very fictionalized setting. Instead of taking the field against the Minneapolis Millers, Indianapolis Indians and Kansas City Blues, Nappi's Brewers play in a league with teams called the Sidewinders, Bears, Colts and the Spokane(!) Rangers. The choice narrows the story's focus to Mickey, Arthur and their shared journey.

It's wonderful to see the Brews make inroads into pop culture. And when the inevitable film adaptation is made, I think I can recommend some excellent historical consultants to the producers....


EDIT: Rex Hamann (of the invaluable American Association Almanac) has written not one but two reviews of The Legend of Mickey Tussler, one on its Amazon page and one for OnMilwaukee.com. Be sure to check them out - I can't recommend his work highly enough.