I'm a fan of the epic Science Fiction or Fantasy story. I always have been. I want to see Jim Kirk and friends save the galaxy for the four million and sixth time. I want to see the Heroes of the Lance charge in and defeat the evil goddess Takhisis and foil her attempt to take over the world of Krynn...
Yup, there's nothing like a good romp with a definable villain and some heroes that just want to beat the everloving tar out of them because they deserve it. I mean, who doesn't love that kind of story? (Okay, people who read romance but they're weird.) Then again, sometimes it's good to read something a little lighter. Every once in awhile, a feel good story works and removes all your cares... and entertains you if it's good enough.
Enter Jon Del Arroz and Gravity of the Game. It's a story about a baseball commissioner, a sick child and baseball on the moon. Yes, you read that right. Baseball on the moon. It's not really possible at first because of the gravitational differences between Earth and the Moon but hey, what's a story without a little conflict?
When Hideki Ichiro, retired baseball player and commissioner of all of professional baseball, decides he needs to expand his league, things get a little weird. He thinks expansion is necessary. All of his owners seem to think that expansion is necessary. The problem is over-saturation. Where do you put a team when there is nowhere left to put a team? How do you grow your sport when it fills up pretty much anywhere that the sport is consumed? It's a conundrum to be sure.
Of course, that's not the only problem. Commissioner Ichiro is not universally loved by his owners. There are some inter-league politics that make his life especially rough. Partially, his plan to expand on the moon is motivated by them. Partially, he just plain sees an open market. He just needs to make the physics work. And that's where the truly Science Fictional part of the story comes in.
I don't want to give too much away, but the title of the story ought to make it obvious that Ichiro has to find a way to either make baseball work in one-sixth of Earth's gravity or increase the gravitational attraction of the moon. I don't want to give away too much, but I'm thinking that most SF fans won't be too surprised at the solution he comes up with. It's pretty standard in damn near every SF story that takes place in space.
And that's one of the really cool parts of this novella. We get to be in on the ground floor so to speak. A lot of works reference similar tropes and we all accept them because they're what we're used to, but very rarely do we get to start at the beginning and see where they came from. I really got a kick out of that. I have a feeling a physics professor may experience a catastrophic meltdown if exposed to the concept, but honestly I got out of the sciences because I didn't like physics professors and their tendency to force everyone to follow their formulas instead of thinking. So kudos to Del Arroz and all of the other SF writers out there who were able to think instead of following some formula out of a book.
I really like Mr. Ichiro too. He does his best to promote the interests of the game, and that includes making teams more profitable, or at least keeping their revenue from shrinking to the extent possible. It's not just about that with him though. Somehow this always seems to get lost in modern day sports coverage. We obsess over a player's stats and his paycheck. We'll spend all day debating a manager's play-calls and trying to get him fired. We'll all talk trash about our favorite team's general manager (and I'm from Detroit where criticizing Randy Smith used to be a more popular pastime than watching Tigers games) when he makes a move that we think might be slightly sub-optimal. What no-one seems to talk about is the people in the league and how much they love the game.
But Del Arroz seems to get what it's all about. Ichiro is not just some money-grubbing executive out to make as much as he can. He genuinely cares about the game and what happens to it. Listen, we've all seen our favorite pitcher walk a batter and asked if he could have struck him out for another million. It happens, but in Gravity of the Game we're reminded that the guys we watch on television love baseball as much as we do. They've dedicated their lives to it and there was a lot of work put in before they got their first check. It's something to think about.
I'll be honest in stating that Gravity of the Game is quite a bit shorter than the books I typically review on my blog. I picked it up one day over lunch (I eat the vast majority of my meals alone) so that I would have something to read while I was eating. I was intrigued by the fact that I loved The Stars Entwined and also by the ninety-nine cent price point. I didn't want to spend a whole lot on a story that was only one meal long. I'm pretty glad I did though. It actually took me two meals to read and was a good time.
At the end of the day though Gravity of the Game is what it is. If you're the kind of person that only reads works overrun by explosions and severed body parts, you won't find them here. This is a good story with a real conflict but it's not solved with swords or bomb-pumped lasers. There is no fireball tossing wizard and you won't find a single phaser pistol in existence. On the other hand, if you're looking for something a little more laid back and relaxed with a solid plot and likeable characters, give Gravity of the Game a try. You'll be glad you did.
Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Outside Strikes
Gravity of the Game
Jon Del Arroz
Superversive Press, 2017
Gravity of the Game is available for purchase at the following link:
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