For Love of the Game

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For Love of the Game is a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Shaara, published posthumously in 1991. The book tells the story of fictional baseball great Billy Chapel, forty years old and nearing the end of his career.

[edit] Plot summary

On the second to last day of the season, Chapel's team, the Detroit Tigers, are about to play against the New York Yankees. Chapel receives news from a sports reporter that the new owners of the team, the sons of the Old Man who had signed him years earlier, are preparing to trade him. Just the night before, his girlfriend Jane did not show up at his hotel room, and Chapel reaches the conclusion that it is time to move on and finally make the transition from boyhood to manhood. Just before the lasts inning, he makes the decision that this will be the last game he plays.

Over half the book tells the story of that final game, with flashbacks from the pitching mound and dugout to incidents throughout Chapel's life. Chapel is determined that his last game will also be his greatest, even though, with all the young new players on the Tigers, the Yankees are a far superior team. As he strikes out his opponents one after the other, he soon becomes aware of the fact that he has held the Yankees at bay thus far, not allowing one hit from the more talented Yankees team. He soon becomes determined to pitch a perfect game. Meanwhile, he reflects on his personal life, and especially on Jane, whom he finally realizes that he loves, even though he has never actually said it. That morning Jane told him she is taking a job in London and leaving immediately, so the two key passions of his life, Jane and baseball, are about to vanish forever.

As the game proceeds, Chapel feels the sharp pain in his arm that comes with age. Nevertheless, he refuses to give up the pitching mound, and chooses instead to divert his attention by delving deeper into his life and his relationship. At the end of the game, he has pitched a perfect game and retires from baseball with a new dignity. After the celebrations, he heads to the airport with his ticket to London, where he plans to go to tell Jane his feelings. With baseball behind him, he has grown from a boy who has led a life into manhood.

This short book was discovered after Shaara's death, and published by his son, author Jeffrey Shaara. The book was made into a movie by Sam Raimi.