I finished BLOCKADE BILLY by Stephen King last night. It was an incredibly easy read, taking all of about 1 1/2 hours to get through the title story and the short(er) story Morality both.

The title tale was an easy read, fun if you're a baseball fan, with a neat little twist at the end. As King short stories go, it was pretty solid - not his best, probably, but far from his worst. It is told by an old timer who used to coach for the Newark Titans in the major leagues. (You never heard of them? Well, that's not surprising considering what happens in this story.) The Titans have the misfortune of having one catcher arrested for running over and killing a woman during spring training in Florida while drunk, and then their backup get involved in a play at the plate with Ted Kluzewski who breaks the guy up pretty bad. They need a catcher in the worst way, and they bring a guy up from a minor league team.

And the kid is really good...but even though he is good, the team's fortunes seem to go south. It's almost supernatural, the way things seem to be working out.

But in the end, there's nothing supernatural about the kid or the team's fortunes - except perhaps in the sense that baseball players are really superstitious and buy into streaks and good luck and such. (Hey look at the Cubs! Still trying to find that elusive championship after that black cat crossed their path in New York in 1969...)

King loves baseball, that is obvious from this story, and he knows the game. But in the end, this is a short story. It's on the long side, but I don't think it's as long as most of his "novellas", stuff like Apt Pupil or The Shawshank Redemption. The short story tagged on the end is an interesting exploration of a strange kink that develops in a couple after being offered a large sum of money to do something immoral and illegal and very bad, at the request of a minister who never really sinned in his life. It was okay, but also not among King's best.

I got the book at Costco for a bit over 8 bucks, so I don't feel ripped off, it was worth that to me, but I am also glad I didn't pay a bunch more for it. A good read but not an indispensible King.