Mystery Ball ’58: A Season-Long Whodunit

The 1958 Major League Baseball season, when the Giants and Dodgers first began playing in California, provides the backdrop for this engaging mystery from Polman, a journalist, screenwriter, and baseball blogger. Snappy Drake, a former minor league pitcher, maintains his connection to the sport he loves by working at San Francisco’s Seals Stadium as an usher. The Seals stadium is the temporary home for the Giants while team owner Horace Stoneham tries to arrange a land deal to enable the construction of Candlestick Park. On opening day, the stadium also becomes home to bloodshed when Snappy finds a man with a switchblade in his back, wedged under some seats. After the dead man’s wallet is found in Snappy’s apartment, he becomes a suspect, and he’s motivated to do some amateur sleuthing of his own. The twisted path to the truth offers more than a few surprises, though baseball buffs will be more satisfied than nonfans. [em](BookLife) [/em]