Recently widowed and now retired, Billy Bryan is “coming to the end of many things.” Then a long-forgotten scrapbook stirs memories of a distant past—and beckons him and his grown daughter on a reluctant journey to relive his role in history. In 1947 Bryan was playing winter ball in Cuba, his future as uncertain as the island country’s. Then one fateful night Bryan witnessed a young student radical named Fidel unleash an amazing curveball. So begins Bryan's tug-of-war with destiny.

Tim Wendel is an award-winning writer whose articles and columns have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today. He teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University and is the author of The New Face of Baseball: The One-Hundred-Year Rise and Triumph of Latinos in America's Favorite Sport. For more information on Tim Wendel, visit his Web site http://www.timwendel.com.

"A superbly crafted meditation on heroism, duty, and the irony derived from recognizing everyone's imperfections but your own."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"In this first novel, well-known sportswriter and radio commentator Wendel explores the legend that Fidel Castro could've been a contender in America's major leagues. . . . Beautifully written, and with a ring of truth to it."—Library Journal

"A Cuba libre mixed with baseball, revolution, and moonlight, wonderfully evocative of a time that was and a pitcher that might have been."—Frank Deford, author of Everybody’s All-American

"Tim Wendel's love and impressive knowledge of baseball suffuses every page of this passionate novel of love, loss, and the real freedom that wisdom and time sometimes bring."—Ken Burns, coauthor of Baseball: An Illustrated History

"This is a skillfully rendered story that resonates with the ring of truth. The author's prose is so convincing you'll smell the aroma of Billy's leather mitt and feel the softness of the grassy field cooling in the tropical evening. Your heart will pound. . . . This book has the power to get under your skin, and the wisdom to make you reflect on the meaning of your own life. Above all, it stands as an allegory for the story of Cuba itself, in all its tragic magnificence. Highly recommended."