Product Description

The Knuckleball From Hell is a story of life, love, the New York Mets...and everything in between. It's the Marx Brothers and Three Stooges meets baseball and the Mets in this highly irreverent and extremely quirky novel. Meet the New York City bus drivers-turned-Mets general managers, the Russian Cossack first baseman, the superhero Donutman, surfer dudes, a Rastafarian quantum physicist, Hare Krishnas, the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" remade as a feel-good, light-hearted romantic comedy, and much, much more in this wildly hilarious book. It tells the story of a fictional New York Mets team that is horrendous and been driven into the ground by its bankrupt owner, while the protagonist is a high school phenom who only wants to pitch for the Mets. Unfortunately, he blows out his arm and his career is seemingly over, until he has a chance encounter with a Professor on the lam from chicken-wing eating Department of Homeland Security agents, enabling the kid to join the Mets with a new pitch - the Knuckleball From Hell.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1948529 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"A sweet, funny baseball novel" --Mike Vaccaro, NY Post

About the Author
Michael Wayne's earliest childhood memory is at age three months, sitting on his grandpappy's knee while chewing tobacco and talking about the New York Mets. He doesn't know how to surf, doesn't eat donuts or chicken wings, hopes to be interviewed by the Russian television station Domashny, and has a fastball capable of breaking the sound barrier if thrown in a universe devoid of sound. He is a native New Yorker, except for a brief sojourn in New Jersey from the ages of 0-3. He currently resides 159.5467 miles northwest of Flushing, NY. In his spare time, when he is not obsessing over the Mets and baseball, Michael Wayne speaks in tongues to pigeons, races centipedes, and studies the mating habits of rocks.

Customer Reviews

Not the great American novel
I got this book as a pre-publication copy. I often enjoy sports fiction, particularly comic baseball novels, of which Philip Roth's "The Great American Novel" is the gold standard.

In "The Knuckleball from Hell" I found an admittedly zany plot, but written all too flatly to be a good comic novel. For much of the way, dialogue and sentence structure just laid there on the page. I enjoyed some of the baseball references--the surfing gang named after baseball nicknames--Whitey, Duke, etc. especially, but I found it hard to suspend disbelief of some peripheral elements of the story - drive-thru funeral parlors, and surfing in the ballpark stands to name two in particular.

I admire and envy the author for his effort and courage to write and self-publish this book, but I can't honestly recommend the results. Read Roth's book or watch "Bull Durham" with Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon for real quality in this genre.

Let's Go Mets
I was lucky to get an advance copy of The Knuckleball from Hell. I must admit at first, I wasn't sure what to expect. I tend to read a lot of historical baseball books, and although I've read baseball fiction, I'm not a big fan of baseball novels.

That being said, Michael Wayne's book is a really good, fun read! Filled with zany characters, crazy situations (and of course the old staples - murder, love, sex, baseball), this book had me hooked right from the start. A guy pitching 120 mph? A Met team even worse than the 1962 Mets? A team where the starting nine all speak different languages (including an Arab and Israeli who come up with a viable peace plan)? Real? Doesn't matter. Wayne's writing, characterization, and plot keep this book moving. Imagine if Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut Jr (with some help from maybe Robert Ludlum) got together and wrote a baseball novel. This is it.

And then I got to thinking of real life comparisons. A maverick billionaire from the software industry owning a sports team? Sounds like Paul Allen or Mark Cuban. Ball players colliding because they can't speak the same language? Make sure to google Richie Ashburn, Elio Chacon, and "Yo lo tengo". Lightening fast rookies? Doc Gooden and Sidd Finch. Okay, maybe that's going to far.

So maybe this isn't as far-fetched as my initial impression. The bottom line is that Michael Wayne's The Knuckleball from Hell is a great, fun read, and in case I haven't mentioned it, it's a lot of fun. There are pretty much two good times of the year to read this. Right now, while the baseball season is in full swing (and the Mets are in first), or during the offseason when a good baseball book can cure the winter blues. I recommend this be read right now!

Here's hoping the 2007 Mets celebrate each win by surfing in Flushing Meadow Park!

A Funny, Pleasant Summer Read
This was a well-written, funny escapist romp. A nice mix of quirky humor and a fast-paced zany plot.