Breaking balls

the long version

"Brett Samuels isn't the kind of pitcher that strikes fear in the hearts of opposing players. At not quite 6'0", not quite 175 pounds, he looks more a member of the grounds crew than of the pitching corps. With a semi-nimbus of curls emanating from beneath his cap, he cuts a figure that is equal parts defiant and hilarious, like a Napoleonic Max Patkin gazing angrily in at the signs. And he throws a fastball scarcely more stirring to dustmites than to minor league batters. But he has a broad-sweeping curve and an off-the-table forkball, the kind of out-pitch most hitters say just isn't fair. And they're right." "Breaking Balls is the story of a sharp-tongued junkball pitcher from New York who, surrounded by vastly superior athletes and thriving on guile, wisecracks his way through the Northwest timber towns of the low minor leagues."--BOOK JACKET.