text: I read this short novel because I greatly admired Shaara's Pulitzer Prize winning "Killer Angels," and because I'm a baseball fan.  The novel feels more like an outline or first draft than a completed work about an aging pitcher.  It's a bit shallow and predictable in its plot.  The characters are what one expects in all too many sports novels and short stories.  The feel or atmosphere just isn't quite there.
  
  Any baseball fan will see flaws in the book right away, flaws that distract and damage the work.  Shaara sets most of the novel in Yankee Stadium with the Hawks playing the Yankees.  Why the author chose to have one real team against a fictional team is unclear.  The Hawks apparently are from Atlanta, but an Atlanta team, Braves or Hawks, whichever, would not be playing the Yankees interleague on the next to last day of the season.  Finally, when a visiting pitcher goes out to warm up before the game, he does so in the semi-hidden bull pen down the left field line in Yankee Stadium--not on the mound on the field.
  
  This book was published posthumously and Mr. Shaara perhaps never had a chance to polish his prose--prose that was excellent in "Killer Angels."  It's unfortunate.
  
  There are glimmers of interest in the book, but not enough to recommend it to baseball fans or fans of the author's other book
  