Our league is honored to have Gene Fehler, one of baseball's widely published writers and poets play with us.

Each year the Society of School Librarians International (SSLI) announces annual book awards in several categories, one Best Book and nine Honor Books.  In the "Grades 7-12 Novels" category SSLI just named Gene's novel Beanball the 2008 Best Book.  I'm sure Gene's especially gratified when he saw that some of the Honor Books that Beanball beat out were written by world-famous authors, including Avi and Madeleine L'Engle. We're proud of you Gene!

Gene has a gift. He displays baseball through words of simple, yet grand articulation and grace.  In his mid-sixties, he plays in over 100 softball games and 20 baseball games every year, and his gift captures some of these great moments, vividly. He enjoys playing any position, but is quite fond of pitcher, catcher and infield.

When he's not playing baseball or softball, he loves to read baseball fiction (he's got full library of baseball fiction!).  He loves to write, spend time with his family, spends even more time with his lovely wife Polly, and visits schools to encourage students to read and write poetry with full enjoyment and enthusiasm.

A few of Gene's published works:

I Hit the Ball: Baseball Poems for the Young (1996)

Tales from Baseball's Golden Age (2000)

More Tales from Baseball's Golden Age (2002)

Center Field Grasses: Poems from Baseball (1991)

Dancing on the Basepaths: Baseball Poetry and Verse (2001)

Goblin Giggles: A Ghastly Lift-the-Flap Book (2005)

Let the Poems Begin!: A Poet's Guide to Writing Poetry

When Main Street was One Block Long: Poems from a Small Town Childhood (1999)

Breaking into a Smile: Poems with a Light Touch (1999)

NEW RELEASE! - Beanball (2008) - "It's the last inning of a high school baseball game between arch-rivals Oak Grove and Compton. Center fielder Luke "Wizard" Wallace steps up to the plate--and is hit by a beanball, a wild pitch that shatters his skull, destroys the vision in his left eye, and changes his life forever.In this riveting novel, the events surrounding this pivotal moment are recounted through free-verse monologues by 28 different voices, including those of Luke and his Oak Grove teammates; the pitcher, Kyle Dawkins, and other Compton players; the two coaches; Luke's family members and teachers; and Sarah Edgerton, a new classmate who seems more affected by Luke's injury than his girlfriend is.With its unusual format, gripping subject matter, and economy of language, Beanball is a thought-provoking, fast-paced read"

Samples of his work - from Center Field Grasses:

Reese and Rizzuto

The two together make me think of October,
of shortstops dueling in Ebbets Field,
in the late afternoon shadows of Yankee Stadium,
while we argued who was better, Reese or Rizzuto.  

Only fans of the Dodgers and Yankees knew. 
For the rest of us it was a coin flip, like choosing between
two words with almost the same meaning.  Astounding or
Amazing.  Incandescent or Luminous.  Rizzuto or Reese.

From I Hit the Ball:

That Ump Makes Me So Mad!

That blind old ump behind the plate! --
He's such a scary sight.
His eyes look like tomatoes:
His teeth are long and white.

Like a dragon, flames shoot out
From both his ears and nose.
And he calls "strike" on everything
The other pitcher throws.

(Especially when I'm at bat,
And oh, it makes me mad)!
But when he doesn't ump my games,
I really love my dad.

Check out Gene's Web page at http://www.genefehler.com