Courtland's Spirits: A Carol for the National Pastime

John Courtland, the Scrooge-like owner of the Central City Champs thinks he knows the National Pastime. He lets the baseball men make the baseball decisions while he concerns himself with TV revenues, season ticket sales, merchandising deals, skyboxes, lawyers and agents and escalating player salaries. Thats what owners do. They count the money. And thats what baseball is all about. Money. His eight-year-old grandson, Jordan, lives in a world in which baseball is an activity run by grownups. Its all about official rules, official distances, and official uniforms. Its about playing in front of your parents and running laps for your coaches and selling candy bars to raise money. Its a pastime thats directed, organized and scheduled by grownups to entertain other grownups at hours convenient to those grownups. That baseball.Courtlands Spirits is the story of what happens when John Courtland meets the Spirits of Baseball Past, Baseball Present, and Baseball Future, and how it affects him, his team, and those around himfrom his whining star pitcher to his grandson Jordan. He learns what all of us have always known but are constantly forgettingbaseball is about HITTINGPITCHING RUNNING FIELDINGTHROWING