When the great fire of 1841 begins to rage through Manhattan, Felix meets fireman Andrew Cartwright and volunteers to set the charge to blow up a building and stop the fire from destroying Germantown where he lives. Felix calls himself "the fastest boy in America" and his speed pays off on the diamond and at his job, a messenger for the garment industry. Told in "nine innings," the story begins with Felix Schneider, a stowaway German immigrant who landed in Brooklyn in 1841 in the days when baseball was played by local clubs and the favorite local team was the Knickerbockers. He stepped back up on the mound, worked his fingers into the right grip, shook Carlos off until he dropped two fingers for a curve, and let the ball fly.Īnd in Alan Gratz' The Brooklyn Nine (Dial Books, 2009), it is baseball's story that becomes the ties that bind this novel of nine generations of the Schneider/Snider/Flint family, culminating with Michael's son, fourteen-year-old Snider Flint, convalescing from a broken leg, trying to price a box of baseball memorabilia for his Uncle Dave to sell online. Like Sandy Koufax and his perfect game, it was a special gift in a special time and a special place, one that he shouldn't examine too closely. It was a day like Michael had never known and knew he would never see again. It was baseball's day, a day when the Earth said, "That's pretty good Earth, but I'll show you perfect." Still, he hasn't thrown a single curveball all day, and he knows the batter won't be looking for it. His curve only works part of the time, often refusing to break and floating up to the plate like it's got "HIT ME" written all over it. He's already thrown his best pitch-an at-the-corners fastball-until his arm feels like an overdone noodle. It's 1981, Brooklyn, New York, and Michael Flint is one out away from pitching the perfect game for his team.
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