Book Review: Blockade Billy

  Title: Blockade Billy
Author: Stephen King   
Genre: Historical Fiction, Short Story  Ease of Reading: I was reading a longer book when I recently left for vacation, but I took this one along as a back-up in case I finished. I should have brought a back-up for my back-up!  Eighty pages in all, which could probably be knocked out in an hour if you're a fast reader. 
Synapse:The Titans needed a starting catcher after they lost their top two backstops right before they headed north from spring training.  Enter William Blakely.  Blakely takes the league by storm and earns the nickname "Blockade Billy" because of how he blocks the plate so effectively.  There seems to be more to Billy than there appears and that's when you realize this is a short story written by Stephen King.  <Insert ominous music.>
Comments:  This is a nice little piece in which King demonstrates his baseball knowledge.  After pushing through my last book, it was a welcome to have a quick and easy read.
Grade: I don't know how I would feel if I paid the $14.99 MSRP, rather than the sale price of $4.98.  It's a quick book for sure, but I like value and feeling as though I got my monies worth is important to me.  On a separate note, I labeled this one as historical fiction because King mixes in quite a few other baseball names that I have come to know: Ted Williams, Bill Skowron, and Nellie Fox.  I'll give this one an 'A' based on price and entertainment value.  If anyone's interested I'd be happy to dump this one into a media mail envelope for you.