Stephen King’s New Baseball Book: Blockade Billy

Stephen King, the master of the horror genre, is releasing a baseball-themed book.  It is a novella entitled Blockade Billy and tells the tale of a great baseball player, William Blakely,  whose exploits have been erased from the record books.  Limited edition sales begin April 20th and regular mass market sales begin in May.

From Stephen King’s website

Even the most diehard baseball fans don’t know the true story of William “Blockade Billy” Blakely.

He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first — and only — player to have his existence completely removed from the record books.

Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game’s history.Every effort was made to erase any evidence that William Blakely played professional baseball, and with good reason. Blockade Billy had a secret darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today. His secret was much, much worse… and only Stephen King, the most gifted storyteller of our age, can reveal the truth to the world, once and for all.

‘Blockade Billy’ is a novella, set in the 1950’s.  The New Jersey Titans lose their catcher as the season starts.  So the team calls up an unknown from the midwest, William Blakely, ‘He arrives there with hay in his hair.  And, he’s a little bit odd.  Talks to himself.  But he turns into a superstar.’

But of course it doesn’t stop there, ‘Bottom line, he’s not who he appears to be.’

This is King’s third book with some type of baseball connection. King wrote 1999’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and co-wrote the non-fiction Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season.  Blockade Billy is the first time that baseball has been the central element of King’s work.

King has created some buzz around this release with a hard-cover, limited edition being sold by Cemetary Dance shipping on April 20th.  This edition comes complete with the only known baseball card of star player, William Blakely (shown at right).

Regular sales, both book and audio will begin in May.

“People have asked me for years when I was going to write a baseball story,” Ask no more; this is it.” — Stephen King.