Painting the Black

Chapter One\ Lots of guys can stand on the pitcher's mound and throw a baseball hard. But they aren't pitchers. A pitcher does more than throw: he knows what he's doing out there. He changes speeds; he works the corners, inside and outside, tying batters up or making them reach out awkwardly. And once he owns the corners, once the umpire is calling all those pitches strikes, then he really goes to work. He moves his pitches out or in another inch, so that instead of going over the plate, the ball passes over the edge of the plate. Painting the black, they call it, putting the ball right there on the borderline. Josh Daniels could do that. He lived on that borderline. I know because I was his catcher.\ A year ago I would have sworn that I could never play baseball again, that it was absolutely impossible for me to make the school team. But I was right there with Josh when he reached out for that championship ring. My hand was right next to his. Even now I'm not sure who wanted it more.\ It all started one night last June. I'd been listening to the Mariners' game. It was one of those three-hour slugfests that went back and forth. We were down two in the last of the ninth when Ken Griffey Jr. came up with the bases loaded. Griffey took the first pitch low, then he got one in his wheelhouse and blasted it. I was only listening,but I swear I could see that drive, see the ball climbing higher and higher and then landing in the second deck. The radio exploded, and my heart just about came out of my chest.\ After a game like that, you can't just turn off the radio and knock off. I listened tothe post-game show and the manager's show, but I was still too pumped up to sleep.\ I switched to one of those stations that play old rock. I had the sound down low because my mom and dad had been in bed for hours. That's why I picked up the rumble of the engine the moment the truck turned and headed up our block. And when the truck stopped, engine idling, in front of the big empty house across the street, I went over to the window to look out.\ The sky was cloudless, with a big full moon overhead. The passenger door opened and a kid who looked to be about my age, seventeen or eighteen, hopped out. I could see him clearly in the moonlight. A big kid with dark, shoulder-length hair and a long, angular face.\ The driver, a man I figured was his father, stuck his head out the window. His voice carried in the night air. "I'm going to pull this thing right up to the steps. You guide me, Josh."\ The kid climbed onto the porch. He put both hands up and motioned for the truck to back toward him. "Keep coming. Keep coming." His rich, deep voice filled the night air. "A little more... easy now...stop!" The brake lights went on, and for an instant his face turned an eerie red, making him look like a rock star in some MTV video.\ The driver's door opened and the man, who was short and stocky, stepped out. "Give me the house keys," he said, looking back into the truck.\ A woman's voice answered from inside. "I don't have them. You've got them."\ "I do not have them." The man's voice was sharp.\ A search took place, the keys were found, and the front door to the house opened. The porch light went on, the rolling back door of the truck was raised, and the unloading began.\ If it had been daytime, I would never have stood at that open window and watched, and not just because they could have seen me. Time passes differently late at night. You can stand and look out a window without worrying that you should be doing something else. Those late hours are all stolen hours.\ They didn't unload all that much. Mattresses, box springs, some lamps, a table -- just the basics. There was probably some other stuff too, but I didn't pay much attention. Mainly I watched the kid, the way he took the stairs three at a time, his broad shoulders, his rail-straight back.\ When I was in sixth grade, I broke my ankle and had to spend a couple of weeks in the hospital. Day after day I'd lie in bed and watch "Leave It to Beaver" reruns on the hospital television. All the time I watched, something seemed strange about the program, but I could never quite put my finger on it. Just before I got out of the hospital, I figured out what it was: Every time Beaver stepped outside, someone his age was there waiting to do something with him. Kids lived in every house up and down Beaver's block.\ I don't know about the rest of this country. Maybe it's still that way in some places. But in the Crown Hill neighborhood of Seattle where I live, there are old people, young couples with no kids, and single people. I've lived in this same house my whole life. In all that time, there had been only one year when anybody my age lived on this block -- and that year ended in disaster. So seeing somebody my age was something different.\ They worked for about an hour. Then the front door closed and the porch light went off. I found myself yawning, so I went back to my bed. I listened to a couple more songs on the radio. The last one I remember was "Hey Jude." Somewhere in one of those Na Na Na Na's at the end, I fell asleep.\ Painting the Black. Copyright © by Carl Deuker. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

\ From The Critics"Deuker, adept at capturing the thrills during the game, proves talented at dramatizing Ryan's torment in the face of his friend's deeds; the depiction of a boy coming into his own is resonant and inspring."\ \ \ \ \ VOYA\ - Susan Dunn\ In grade school, Ryan Ward was a pretty good baseball player. As he describes it, "I batted over .500, led the league in RBIs, and my coach told me I had the quickest wrists he had ever seen. I was going to be Ken Griffey, Jr." But when a summertime accident-he fell out of a tree, broke both legs and an arm and badly damaged his ankle-stole most of his natural ability on the ball field, Ryan gave up baseball for good. But along with sports, Ryan also more or less gave up on life. Since the accident he has coasted through school, never committing himself to studying, never making any close friends nor fitting in with a crowd, and not even choosing a college or thinking about what he wants to do with his life after his fast-approaching graduation. The summer before his senior year Ryan gets a new neighbor, Josh Daniels, an all-star athlete, who also will be a senior in the fall. Since there are no other people their age in the neighborhood, Ryan and Josh end up hanging around together. And since Josh's favorite pastime is baseball, Ryan finds himself-for the first time in five years -picking up a glove and ball and playing catch. Working out with Josh, a pitcher, Ryan builds up his strength and flexibility more than he had believed was possible. Convinced by Josh to try out for the school varsity team, Ryan makes the roster as a back-up catcher and eventually moves into the starting position for every game Josh pitches. The team mows over opponent after opponent, and Josh becomes a school hero. But one scholarly girl does not see him that way. She ridicules him to his face and in the school newspaper. When Ryan witnesses Josh and another boy assault this student in retaliation, he agonizes over whether to turn the two in, knowing that Josh probably will be suspended, which could cost the team the championship. As Ryan is forced to take a stand about something for the first time in his life, he finds it no longer so easy to escape to the small, safe world he has created for himself. As always Deuker hits the nail on the head. This is an excellent sports story, with a lot more to it than just the game of baseball. Ryan is a likeable, believable hero; readers will hope he makes the right decision but still will be disappointed when Josh's suspension does cause the team to fall apart and sacrifice the championship. Young adult sports fans will snap this one up, and if they have not already read Deuker's On the Devil's Court (Avon, 1991) or Heart of a Champion(Avon, 1994), make sure they take these titles home, too. The one complaint I have with the book is the cover art. The figure in the background (Josh) is strangely out of proportion with the catcher in the foreground. It certainly is not up to the high standard of the book. VOYA Codes: 5Q 4P M J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written, Broad general YA appeal, Middle School-defined as grades 6 to 8, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).\ \ \ Children's Literature\ - Bruce Adelson\ In his wonderful book, Carl Deuker spins a marvelous, finely textured yarn whose appeal may prove to be timeless. This story focuses on Ryan Ward, a high school senior suffering from the emotional effects of a broken ankle. Set back by this long ago injury, Ryan drifts into melancholy, uninterested in school and home life until Josh Daniels moves in across the street. Josh is everything Ryan is not, tall, handsome, athletic, and magnetic. A two-sport star in football and baseball, Josh is the prototypical big man on campus. Through Josh, Ryan vicariously experiences the thrills of high school athletic stardom. Josh also helps Ryan overcome his shyness by prompting him to push himself athletically, to the point that Ryan tries out for and makes the school's varsity baseball team. As the story unfolds, we learn how Ryan's newfound confidence helps him mature and guides him through the pitfalls of a friendship built on hero worship. Eventually, Ryan is forced to choose between Josh, the baseball team, a state championship and the truth when he discovers his friend's involvement in an incident that rocks Crown Hill High School.\ \ \ \ \ School Library JournalGr 8 UpDuring the summer before his senior year, Ryan Ward is thrilled when a kid his age moves in across the street. He's even more thrilled when he learns that Josh Daniels is a star athlete. The two play catch for hours and Ryan secretly dreams of catching for the varsity team in the spring. He watches in awe as Josh proceeds to become the school's starting quarterback and leads the football team to a terrific season, but he is unsettled by the aggressive side of his friend's personality. When baseball season finally arrives, Ryan makes the team as a third-string catcher. He eventually becomes a starter because he's the only one who can handle Josh's hard slider. Just before the championship game, Ryan stumbles upon and stops an assault on a girl in the school. He realizes that one of the masked assailants is Josh, but telling the authorities proves to be an agonizing decision. The book ends somewhat ironically, yet realistically, with Josh signing a multimillion dollar professional baseball contract and receiving a tap on the wrist for his crime. Ryan, meanwhile, enrolls in the local junior college. Rather than producing a stereotyped high school jock, Deuker portrays Josh as a complex and multidimensional character. Ryan is a player who succeeds with his head, rather than through sheer talent. And while he learns about the subtleties of baseball, he also learns about the subtleties of life. A well-crafted sports novel that delivers without becoming didactic or boring.Todd Morning, Schaumburg Township Public Library, IL\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsFor Ryan Ward, 17, the baseball diamond leads to much more than just a winning season in this exciting and moving novel from Deuker (Heart of a Champion, 1993, etc.).\ Until Josh Daniels and his family move in across the street during the summer, Ryan seems destined for mediocrity at Seattle's Crown Hill High. Eager for a friend, Ryan tags after the charismatic, athletically gifted Josh, a pitcher; while they play catch, Ryan realizes that he enjoys catching and thinks of trying out for the varsity team. But Ryan's plans are put on hold when autumn rolls around and Josh concentrates on the football team. Throughout the novel, his single-minded, nearly ruthless ambition is shown as the opposite of Ryan's nagging insecurities. The image of himself as Josh's toady drives Ryan to begin working out months before baseball season. Josh's careful maneuvering during practice shows Ryan at his best, and he makes the varsity cut; the team's unprecedented success is achieved largely through the symbiosis between the boys as pitcher and catcher. There the connection ends: Josh, master of high school politics, grows more arrogant while Ryan blossoms with newfound confidence. A championship season seems clinched until Josh, in a wolf mask, assaults a female classmate who has embarrassed him. Ryan interrupts the assault and recognizes Josh. Deuker, adept at capturing the thrills during the game, also proves talented at dramatizing Ryan's torment in the face of his friend's deeds; the depiction of a boy coming into his own is resonant and inspiring.\ \ \