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Backstop: A Baseball Love Story in Nine Innings
You know Backstop. He plays for any team in any city in America with a major league ball club. You cheer him when he delivers, and boo him when he doesn’t. In what could be his last game after 14 years in the major leagues—the seventh game of the World Series—Backstop chronicles his rookie season, takes the reader to Chicago where he finds romance, and reveals the heartbreak he endured in the aftermath of an adulterous affair.
220 pages, Paperback
First published December 30, 2009
About the author
J. Conrad Guest
24 books47 followersJ. Conrad's first novel, January's Paradigm, was published in 1998. Current Entertainment Monthly in Ann Arbor, Michigan, wrote of January's Paradigm, "Readers will not be able to put it down." He has two other novels based on the Joe January character, One Hot January and January's Thaw.
Backstop: A Baseball Love Story In Nine Innings, was nominated a 2010 Michigan Notable Book, while the Lewis Department of Humanities at the Illinois Institute of Technology adopted it as required reading for their spring 2011 course, "Baseball: America’s Literary Pastime".
Apex Reviews hailed The Cobb Legacy, a murder mystery written around the shooting death of baseball legend Ty Cobb's father by his mother, as "... an eye-opening tale of drama, scandal, and intrigue highlighting the living, breathing history of a fatally-flawed, intrepid folk hero."
A Retrospect In Death portends not only a search for the meaning of life, but also seeks to determine why we are as we are: prewired at conception, or the product of our environment?
Set during the golden era of motor racing, 500 Miles To Go follows young Alex Król as he seeks love while making his dream to win the Indianapolis 500 come true.
A World Without Music is speculative fiction set against a backdrop of romance. Can a Gulf War veteran suffering PTSD leave behind his past to find the music that will make his life worth living?
His fiction and essays appear in various online and print publications; Google him.
A critic calls his work "Gritty, entertaining... real. Romance for the non-romantic."
Backstop: A Baseball Love Story In Nine Innings, was nominated a 2010 Michigan Notable Book, while the Lewis Department of Humanities at the Illinois Institute of Technology adopted it as required reading for their spring 2011 course, "Baseball: America’s Literary Pastime".
Apex Reviews hailed The Cobb Legacy, a murder mystery written around the shooting death of baseball legend Ty Cobb's father by his mother, as "... an eye-opening tale of drama, scandal, and intrigue highlighting the living, breathing history of a fatally-flawed, intrepid folk hero."
A Retrospect In Death portends not only a search for the meaning of life, but also seeks to determine why we are as we are: prewired at conception, or the product of our environment?
Set during the golden era of motor racing, 500 Miles To Go follows young Alex Król as he seeks love while making his dream to win the Indianapolis 500 come true.
A World Without Music is speculative fiction set against a backdrop of romance. Can a Gulf War veteran suffering PTSD leave behind his past to find the music that will make his life worth living?
His fiction and essays appear in various online and print publications; Google him.
A critic calls his work "Gritty, entertaining... real. Romance for the non-romantic."
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 26, 2011
I’m not really into sports, but the cover of J. Conrad Guest’s novel, Backstop, has a woman’s hand holding the ball and promises A Baseball Love Story in Nine Innings. So I learn there are nine innings in a baseball game.
I grew up English so I started this novel knowing very little about baseball—it includes a bat, a ball, and the need to run, but it’s not cricket. Still, the narrator, Backstop, describes his sport and his life in this book in a way that makes me care about him and the game. Sometimes it’s like listening to the guys in my family discuss football (soccer to the uninitiated). I can almost join in. I’m having fun.
J. Conrad Guest’s novel feels very personable, and really is fun. I want Backstop’s team to win. I want the right sort of ball. I watch to see the arm before its release—how fast will it fly?—and I listen for the crack to resound in the air. Meanwhile I learn of a young man first succumbing to then overcoming the advances of female sports fans. He wants more of life—I want more for him. He meets a girl…
The reader follows the love story, as promised, while following the game. It’s an important game, an important love too, and either could be lost; commitment, trust, faithfulness… and coping with betrayal. On the field there’s the player who always annoys, but perhaps still has true advice to give. Off the field there’s hope.
So now I know a little more about baseball, and a little more of love. I have a sympathy for sportsmen I might not have had before, after seeing the hard sides of temptation. And I feel like I’ve spent time with someone honest and interesting, who loves a sport and a woman and is well worth knowing for both. Backstop’s a read where slow development contrasts with fast balls, slow plans with hurried mistakes, and slow reading with quickened excitement and delight. The dialog has a sweet old-fashioned feel, pleasant humor, and serious depth, and the whole is a seriously enjoyable tale.
Disclosure: I was given a free copy of Backstop by the author, no strings attached, and chose to write a review.
I grew up English so I started this novel knowing very little about baseball—it includes a bat, a ball, and the need to run, but it’s not cricket. Still, the narrator, Backstop, describes his sport and his life in this book in a way that makes me care about him and the game. Sometimes it’s like listening to the guys in my family discuss football (soccer to the uninitiated). I can almost join in. I’m having fun.
J. Conrad Guest’s novel feels very personable, and really is fun. I want Backstop’s team to win. I want the right sort of ball. I watch to see the arm before its release—how fast will it fly?—and I listen for the crack to resound in the air. Meanwhile I learn of a young man first succumbing to then overcoming the advances of female sports fans. He wants more of life—I want more for him. He meets a girl…
The reader follows the love story, as promised, while following the game. It’s an important game, an important love too, and either could be lost; commitment, trust, faithfulness… and coping with betrayal. On the field there’s the player who always annoys, but perhaps still has true advice to give. Off the field there’s hope.
So now I know a little more about baseball, and a little more of love. I have a sympathy for sportsmen I might not have had before, after seeing the hard sides of temptation. And I feel like I’ve spent time with someone honest and interesting, who loves a sport and a woman and is well worth knowing for both. Backstop’s a read where slow development contrasts with fast balls, slow plans with hurried mistakes, and slow reading with quickened excitement and delight. The dialog has a sweet old-fashioned feel, pleasant humor, and serious depth, and the whole is a seriously enjoyable tale.
Disclosure: I was given a free copy of Backstop by the author, no strings attached, and chose to write a review.
March 24, 2010
Backstop plays for the Detroit Tigers, and to say he is passionate about baseball is an understatement. He doesn’t see the players as “sweaty athletes mostly brawn with little between the ears”; on the contrary, he sees baseball as something intricate and artistic, even poetic. He says, “… the balance, the shifting of weight and rotation of hips, the extension of arms … it’s all poetry in motion.”
Forever haunted by his disapproving late father, this lover of baseball, and lover of poetry one day finds the woman of his dreams in Darlene, owner of a small Chicago arts and crafts shop. They fall in love, marry, and just when things couldn’t get any better, Backstop, against his better judgement, has a one-night stand. Darlene kicks him out and his world comes crashing down around him.
But Backstop is an artist, sensitive and really decent to the core, and because of this the reader can’t help but want to see him get his life back together. While continuing to play major league baseball, he forever strives to win back the woman he betrayed. When at last he vows to give up baseball for love, it is at this point that he wins the readers over and completely, especially the female ones. But will he win back Darlene?
Backstop is a beautifully crafted novel with much charm and humor, the humor often coming in from left field. Sports and romance are effortlessly interwoven, and there is as much love and hope as there is forgiveness. Genuinely written, Backstop is a story that will remain with you whether a baseball fan or not.
Forever haunted by his disapproving late father, this lover of baseball, and lover of poetry one day finds the woman of his dreams in Darlene, owner of a small Chicago arts and crafts shop. They fall in love, marry, and just when things couldn’t get any better, Backstop, against his better judgement, has a one-night stand. Darlene kicks him out and his world comes crashing down around him.
But Backstop is an artist, sensitive and really decent to the core, and because of this the reader can’t help but want to see him get his life back together. While continuing to play major league baseball, he forever strives to win back the woman he betrayed. When at last he vows to give up baseball for love, it is at this point that he wins the readers over and completely, especially the female ones. But will he win back Darlene?
Backstop is a beautifully crafted novel with much charm and humor, the humor often coming in from left field. Sports and romance are effortlessly interwoven, and there is as much love and hope as there is forgiveness. Genuinely written, Backstop is a story that will remain with you whether a baseball fan or not.
January 21, 2018
"Baseball, like love, is a game of errors and regrets. Pop-outs, ground-outs, strike-outs. A bad swing, a bad throw, a bad hop. But what captivates us most is the possibility of the next at-bat, of the chance for a rally, of an unlikely clutch play that suddenly changes the stakes. This is where J. Conrad Guest meets us in Backstop: in this beautiful, hopeful place closest to our hearts, where we play for the love of the game, and we love with everything we have.”
—Rachael Perry, author of How to Fly
—Rachael Perry, author of How to Fly
April 13, 2012
Backstop is a fictional catcher for the Detroit Tigers who is an amazingly good person. Off the field, he is everything that his childhood role model, Ty Cobb, was not. Sort of an An-Ty Cobb, if you will. Yet despite all this, one moment of failure may cost him everything he loves.
December 3, 2011
Backstop – A Baseball Love Story in Nine Innings by J. Conrad Guest, is a unique novel. Told in first person by the catcher, or backstop, of the Detroit Tigers, it chronicles his career from rookie to career's end.
Backstop, as everyone calls him, is an interesting man who breaks the jock mold. Hardly dumb, he continually surprises the reader with his intuitive insights and literary interests.
Darlene, the woman who wins Backstop's heart, is also an interesting character. Hurt by a bad relationship, she's loathe to commit, but finds herself drawn to this far from ordinary man. It's up to Backstop to win her heart, but can he keep her love and trust?
Backstop's reflections on his relationship with Darlene are interspersed with with play by play account of baseball games. Though I know very little about baseball, I enjoyed the descriptions. J. Conrad Guest makes the game come alive with his words. The reader can visualize the events as they unfold.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a great baseball game and a good romance. Five gold acorns!
© Dellani Oakes 2011
Backstop, as everyone calls him, is an interesting man who breaks the jock mold. Hardly dumb, he continually surprises the reader with his intuitive insights and literary interests.
Darlene, the woman who wins Backstop's heart, is also an interesting character. Hurt by a bad relationship, she's loathe to commit, but finds herself drawn to this far from ordinary man. It's up to Backstop to win her heart, but can he keep her love and trust?
Backstop's reflections on his relationship with Darlene are interspersed with with play by play account of baseball games. Though I know very little about baseball, I enjoyed the descriptions. J. Conrad Guest makes the game come alive with his words. The reader can visualize the events as they unfold.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a great baseball game and a good romance. Five gold acorns!
© Dellani Oakes 2011
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews