Frank Deford

Now an elderly woman, Sydney Stringfellow recounts for her son her experiences as a swimmer at the 1936 Berlin Olympics where she had an unforgettable and forbidden love affair with the son of a Nazi diplomat.

Bliss, remembered

An American Summer

A father's account of his daughter's brief life details the extraordinary courage and spirit of his child, a victim of cystic fibrosis

The Life of a Child

Alex

"The Entitled is a baseball masterpiece, like The Natural and Field of Dreams." —Mike Schmidt, Baseball Hall of Fame From legendary six-time National Sportswriter of the Year and NPR commentator Frank Deford comes a richly detailed, page-turning tale that takes you deep into America's game. Howie Traveler never made it as a player-his one major league hit and .091 batting average attest to that. He was cursed with that worst of professional maladies, the ill fortune of almost. Now after years of struggling up the coaching ladder, Howie's finally been given his shot as manager of the Cleveland Indians. But whether Howie can spot a small flaw in a batter's swing won't matter if he can't manage his superstar outfielder Jay Alcazar, a slugger with enormous talent (and an ego to match). No crisis on the field fazes Jay and no woman off the field rejects him. But one night at a hotel Howie sees something at Jay's door he wishes he hadn't...and it leaves Howie with an impossible choice. Praise for THE ENTITLED: "I loved The Entitled...reminded me of the many people I've known and played with-pure baseball." —Lou Piniella, Manager, Chicago Cubs "Frank Deford is not just an immensely talented sportswriter, he's an immensely talented American writer." —David Halberstam "In men like Traveler and Alcazar we find the beating heart and struggling soul of baseball..." —Jeff MacGregor, Sports Illustrated; author of Sunday Money "Engrossing...Readers are exposed to a richly textured understanding of baseball and, no less, of estrangement, ambition, mendacity and the search for one's destiny-notwithstanding the cost in human or financial terms." —Library Journal "...proves once again that Deford can play at the highest level in any league." —Michael Mewshaw, author of Year of the Gun "Deford scores another hit with this novel of athletes behaving badly...tackles timely and provocative issues without flinching." —Publishers Weekly

A Tale of Modern Baseball

The Entitled

DIVA globetrotting journalist goes on assignment for the Central Intelligence Agency/divDIV/divDIVAs the world’s premier tennis journalist, Ronnie Ratajczak has a plush life. Like the professional players about whom he writes, he spends his life on the road, hopping from one glamorous locale to another and taking in the giddy atmosphere that surrounds pro tournaments. But unlike the pros, Ronnie operates under little pressure, spending his days pecking out copy and his nights bedding some of the most beautiful women on earth. He is a world-class libertine, and keeps a very high profile./divDIV /divDIVSo high a profile, in fact, that he’s drawn attention from the CIA. They want Ronnie to work for them—not as a spy, but as a spy’s decoy. The job will be easy, well-paid, and, most important, a bit of fun. Ronnie accepts, but soon learns that pretend spies can die just as easily as the real thing./div

The Spy in the Deuce Court

As the years pass, the life of Gavin Grey, a former All-American halfback for the North Carolina Tarheels, is increasingly governed by the legend he becomes and can neither sustain nor outgrow. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

Everybody's All-American

In The Old Ball Game, Frank Deford, NPR sports commentator and Sports Illustrated journalist retells the story of an unusual friendship between two towering figures in baseball history. At the turn of the twentieth century, Christy Mathewson was one of baseball's first superstars. Over six feet tall, clean cut, and college educated, he didn't pitch on the Sabbath and rarely spoke an ill word about anyone. He also had one of the most devastating arms in all of baseball. New York Giants manager John McGraw, by contrast, was ferocious. The pugnacious tough guy was already a star infielder who, with the Baltimore Orioles, helped develop a new, scrappy style of baseball, with plays like the hit-and-run, the Baltimore chop, and the squeeze play. When McGraw joined the Giants in 1902, the Giants were coming off their worst season ever. Yet within three years, Mathewson clinched New York City's first World Series for McGraw's team by throwing three straight shutouts in only six days, an incredible feat that is invariably called the greatest World Series performance ever. Because of their wonderful odd-couple association, baseball had its first superstar, the Giants ascended into legend, and baseball as a national pastime bloomed.

How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball

The Old Ball Game

Raised as blood brothers, Cotton Drake, the son of American missionaries, and Japanese-born Kiyoshi Serikawa find their friendship shattered by war and the love of the beautiful Miyuki. Reprint.

Love and Infamy

Alexandra Deford was just eight years old when she died in 1980 following a battle against cystic fibrosis, the #1 genetic killer of children. Her story touched the hearts of millions when it was first published and then made into a TV movie.

An “entertaining and thought provoking” WWII-era novel of love, war, and sports, told with “a superb sense of character and period” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, American swimmer Sydney Stringfellow finds herself falling in love with Horst Gerhardt, a dashing young German. When the rising tide of global conflict tears them apart, Sydney returns to America, where she finds love again—in the arms of Jimmy Branch, an American man who takes her hand in marriage before shipping off to fight in World War II. And that is when Horst reappears in Sydney’s life, drawing her into a dilemma of passion, betrayal, and espionage. With Bliss, Remembered, the celebrated Frank Deford has produced “a work of enthralling historical fiction” that ranks with the best of his novels, including Everybody’s All American, which Sports Illustrated ranked as one of the twenty-five best sports books of all time (Library Journal, starred review).

Frank Deford

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