The Big Field Paperback – February 5, 2009

Fourteen-year-old Keith "Hutch" Hutchinson loves baseball, and he loves being the shortstop, the guy in the middle of all the action. Unfortunately, he's been moved to second base to make room for Darryl Williams, a kid with tons of talent but not the best attitude. But Hutch is still the team captain and he takes baseball seriously. He's a good team player, he works hard and doesn't show off, even when he hits a home run. His dream is to attend a private baseball school up north and make it to the major leagues. His father was a star player in his day as well, but he missed his chance and doesn't offer Hutch any encouragement, not wanting his son to put all his hopes in one long-shot basket. It bothers Hutch that his father isn't more involved with him, but it's too much when he shows up early for practice one day and finds his father coaching and giving pointers to Darryl.My son who loves baseball and I read this together. Even though Hutch's passion for baseball is obsessive, there was plenty to relate to here. My hope was that it would give my son an idea of how a baseball player should *think* on the field, but while the story is heavy on jargon it's a bit light on fundamentals. It's also pretty long (or at least *felt* that way) and not always the most interesting read. The conflicts with his father and with Darryl offered some fairly interesting plots, and some of the scenes during games were quite exciting and dramatic, but overall it felt kind of formulaic and like it just wasn't a very substantial story. We both liked it, but it wasn't real high on our list.

Advanced reading. Lot of back and forth scenes but very true of what occurs in baseball teams. Good book.

I live this book. It’s great at showing so many qualities of a team. Big one I noticed is sportsmanship and what being a great team player is. I love baseball; I play and watch baseball. I’d recommend this book to anyone really. It has great life lessons too.

I loved it it was so good I could not put it down loved it loved it loved it a lot

I like to read baseball books with my 7 year old. This is our second my Lupica (Batboy was the first) and they have both been head and shoulders above the rest. The stories are very exciting and very real. He tends to deal quite a lot with family issues (divorce, poverty, etc.), and that is as close to a complaint as I will make. I look forward to reading every night.

This book is amazing! It is a great story with a lot of detail about baseball. It kept me interested the entire time and I can't wait to read more of his books!

I recommend this book if you are into to sports or not because this book is a lot about perseverance and the kid and his friend have the best time including his somewhat enemy and they get a long.

Not as good as Heat. Took a while to get into the book but then I liked it.