The third and final book in author Roland Colton’s Baseball Immortal trilogy wraps up the questions we’ve had all through the series. Colton attempts to answer the question of could the baseball players from 100 years ago compete with the athletes of today. His answer is a resounding yes.
A man claiming to be Ty Cobb appeared at a hospital after a hit-and-run accident in the first book. Throughout the trilogy, we wonder if it’s really Ty Cobb. He’s befriended by sports journalist Savannah Cain and her brother Calvin, a former major league pitcher. They help him get a contract with the Atlanta Braves.
A Season Never to be Forgotten picks up where the previous book, Chasing Ghosts of Legends Past, left off. Ty Cobb is in the custody of the Chicago police after assaulting a police officer. However, new evidence comes to life of how Cobb actually saved another officer’s life and managed to facilitate the capture of a notorious highway sniper, so all is forgiven. It’s then back to the ballfield, where he’s on track to break Joe DiMaggio’s consecutive-game-hitting streak.
At the same time, there’s a man who took a gamble on Ty Cobb at the beginning of the season. The contract Cobb signed would give him a $100 million bonus if he batted over .400 during the regular season and the Atlanta Braves win the World Series. As the possibility of both of these things happening looms, he’ll go to just about any length to have to pay out.
I won’t say much else to spoil the story. It’s pretty good and a fine conclusion to the series. We do finally find out if it’s really Ty Cobb who time-traveled to the present day, or a former college baseball sensation Chase Ripley, whose father was obsessed with all things Ty Cobb and taught his son to be just like him in terms of baseball.
There’s a good deal of suspense as the season is ending. Colton has done a great job creating a series of events that kept me turning the page. Although I felt things like Cobb hitting .400 and breaking DiMaggio’s streak were less likely to happen in this modern day with the pitching nuances compared to 100 years ago. However, the story requires you to suspend disbelief a bit anyway, so what’s the harm in suspending it just a bit more?
Missing from this story is any of Calvin and Savannah’s family. In the first book, Calvin is living the life of a retired baseball player on a farm in South Carolina. I can believe that his wife and four children wouldn’t relocate to Atlanta or follow hi on the road during the season. However (spoiler!), the Braves going to the post-season and World Series should certainly bring them around. Yet, they were never talked about again as if they disappeared off the face of the earth.
My only other criticism of this volume is that I don’t think it was proofread as much as it should have been. I found a number of grammar and spelling mistakes, as well as one formatting error that I sent in to Kindle. These were a bit distracting during my reading, but not enough to make me abandon the book (that did just happen with another book I attempted to read).
Those criticisms are why I rated the final book four stars instead of five. I really enjoyed the story throughout, and the way Colton wrapped up Cobb’s story was really well-done. It didn’t necessarily convince me that the payers from 100 years ago could compete against today’s finesse pitchers, but I did like the story quite a bit.
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Categories: Book Reviews
Re the few flaws in the production end of the book:
Typos, grammar/spelling mistakes, and all kinds of error occur in both mainstream publishing and self-publishing, but they’re more common in the latter. I ought to know, because I’ve had to upload corrections to my book (Reunion: A Novella) countless times, including one this morning for a minor formatting mistake. Many people probably don’t notice, or if they do, they don’t care. I, however, do care, because I’ve run into books – including one that was published by a big traditional media company (Oxford University Press) – so rife with mistakes and factual errors that it takes Reader Me out of the book entirely.
I love self-publishing, and it has been a godsend to me, but it has made me a bit more conscientious about proofreading my writing before hitting that SUBMIT button on Kindle Direct Publishing. Maybe Roland Colton will read your review and revisit his book to fix the goofs in this book!
Fine review, as always, Patti.
Thanks Alex! I get that and I can let one or two slide, but after the first few I highlighted the mistakes I found and one formatting error I sent in to Kindle. I had another author ask me on Twitter to read his book which was on Kindle Unlimited and I started it a couple of days ago and it was just so rife with grammar and punctuation mistakes I surrendered 7% in. In this book, I didn’t notice it in the first two of the series, which makes me think this one wasn’t properly proofread. That coupled with the other two quibbles I had were enough for me to knock a star off.
You’re welcome, Patti.