''Blockade Billy'' is a 2010

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

. It tells the story of William "Blockade Billy" Blakely, a fictional baseball

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

who briefly played for the New Jersey Titans during the 1957 season. The novella took King two weeks to write. He had the following to say about the novella:

Plot

The book is told through a framing device, where an old man in a retirement home, George "Granny" Grantham, is telling the story to Stephen King. Granny tells of the 1957 Major League Baseball season, when he was the

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

coach for a now-defunct team, the

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Titans. When the team loses both of their

s days before the start of the season, they are forced to request a

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

player as a last-minute replacement. The replacement turns out to be a young man named William "Billy" Blakely. Although Billy seems to be feeble minded and highly susceptible to suggestion, he turns out to be a phenomenal player. He becomes especially well known for his incredible stopping power at home plate, earning him the nickname "Blockade Billy" amongst fans. He quickly becomes endeared to the team, especially to star

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Danny Dusen, a usually arrogant, self-centered man who adopts Billy as his good luck charm. Granny, however, becomes suspicious of Billy when a player, who was badly injured during a tag out, accuses him of intentionally slicing his ankle. Although Billy claims innocence, and there is no evidence to support the accusation, Granny is convinced that Billy is lying. As the season goes on, Billy's popularity continues to grow. One day, Granny arrives before a game to find the team's manager in a state of panic. Refusing to divulge what's wrong, he asks Granny to cover him as manager, only stating that the team deserves one last game together. During the following game, Hi Wenders, an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

with an antagonistic relationship to the team, makes a bad call, resulting in Granny being thrown out of the game when he argues against it and for cries to "kill the ump" to come from the crowd. Granny returns to the locker room to find the manager with two police officers and a detective. They explain that Billy is an imposter; his real name is Eugene Katsanis, an orphan who worked on the Blakely farm. The real "William Blakely" had seemingly been murdered by Eugene alongside his parents a month previously. Granny reflects on his own speculations of the situation, guessing that Eugene had been abused by the Blakelys, and that the abuse grew worse as the real William, a failing minor league player, became consumed by jealousy over Eugene's superior skill. Eventually, Eugene was provoked into murdering the family. When the call came in requesting Billy as an emergency replacement for the Titans, Eugene decided to assume Billy's identity and report to the team in his place. Granny is asked to send Eugene to the police alone to be arrested. Despite Granny's attempt to create a convincing pretense for sending him to the locker room, Eugene senses that something is wrong and, rather than going straight there, tracks down Wenders. Following the crowd's demands to kill the umpire, he slashes Wenders' throat before being taken into police custody. Granny goes on to describe the misfortunes the team suffered afterwards and reflects reflecting that despite their adoption of Billy as a good luck charm, he instead served as a black hole of luck, sucking it away from the rest of the team.

Release

The book was published by Cemetery Dance on April 20, 2010 as a trade hardcover, timed to coincide with the opening of the

2010 MLB season The 2010 Major League Baseball season began April 4, with the regular season ending on October 3. The 2010 All-Star Game was played on July 13 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim in Anaheim, California. The National League ended a 13-game winless stre ...

. It has

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art), ...

Glen Orbik Glen Orbik (1963 – May 11, 2015) was an American illustrator known for his fully painted paperback and comic covers, often executed in a noir style. In the 1970s, Orbik and his mother moved to Douglas County, Nevada. He is a 1981 graduate of ...

and interior artwork by

Alex McVey Alex McVey is an American fine artist and illustrator from Texas, mostly known for his work on high-end limited edition books and album art. He has illustrated the works of Stephen King, William Peter Blatty, Brian Keene, Joe R. Lansdale, and ot ...

. First copies of the book included William Blakely's

baseball card A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, sta ...

. Brian Freeman's

Lonely Road Books Lonely Road Books is a small press publishing company founded in 2007 by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar and based out of Forest Hill, Maryland. They are a publishing company that specializes in deluxe signed limited edition books. L ...

released a deluxe signed edition of ''Blockade Billy'' in the summer of 2010. On May 25, 2010,

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

released the novella as an

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

, as well as a trade edition hardcover, featuring a bonus short story, "

Morality Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of cond ...

" (originally published in the July 2009 issue of ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

''). A revised version of the story was later included in ''

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams ''The Bazaar of Bad Dreams'' is a short fiction collection by Stephen King, published on November 3, 2015. This is King's sixth collection of short stories and his tenth collection overall. One of the stories, "Obits", won the 2016 Edgar Award fo ...

''.

Editions

Cemetery Dance Publications Cemetery Dance Publications is an American specialty press publisher of horror and dark suspense. Cemetery Dance was founded by Richard Chizmar, a horror author, while he was in college. It is associated with ''Cemetery Dance'' magazine, whic ...

trade dustjacketed hardcover edition (April 20, 2010) #1st edition, 1st printing limited to 10,000 copies and comes

shrink wrap Shrink may refer to: Common meanings *Miniaturization *Shrink, a slang term for: ** a psychiatrist ** a psychoanalyst ** a psychologist Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Shrink'' (album), album by German indie rock/electronica group The Notwist ...

ped with a William "Blockade Billy" Blakely baseball card. Optional slipcases from Cemetery Dance were available for a limited time at an additional fee #2nd printing limited to 10,000 copies sent to libraries *

Scribner Scribner may refer to: Media * Charles Scribner's Sons, also known as Scribner or Scribner's, New York City publisher * ''Scribner's Magazine'', pictorial published from 1887–1939 by Charles Scribner's Sons, then merged with the ''Commentator ...

trade hardcover (May 25, 2010) **Contains the bonus, previously printed, short story "

." It is not scheduled to be illustrated or have a dust jacket (to be released as a paper on boards book) *

and

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

(May 25, 2010) **Also contains the bonus previously printed short story "

Craig Wasson Craig Wasson (born March 15, 1954) is an American actor. He made his film debut in ''Rollercoaster'' (1977). He is best known for his roles as Jake Scully in Brian DePalma's ''Body Double'' (1984), and Neil Gordon in Chuck Russell's '' A Nightmar ...

will be reading the audiobook version *

(Summer, 2010) #Signed Limited Edition - comes in a traycase and features new additional artwork from

and

(the book will be signed by them too), a William "Blockade Billy" Blakely baseball card, and a signed Stephen King baseball card #Signed Lettered Edition - comes in a hand-made custom box with all of the Limited Edition bonuses plus an original piece of artwork and an art portfolio *

Included in The Bazaar of Bad Dreams collection (Fall of 2015)

Reception

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' praised the novella, calling it "swift" and "colorful", saying that it works well because of the voice that King gives to the narrator, Granny Grantham, and "the lovingly detailed evocation of the game aseballas it was played in 1957". Bookreporter.com says that the theme is not "especially new", but since it is a King product it is therefore worthy of consideration.

References

External links

The novella at Stephen King's official site''Blockade Billy''.com
{{Bazaar of Bad Dreams Novellas by Stephen King 2010 American novels Baseball novels New Jersey in fiction Fiction set in 1957 Cemetery Dance Publications books