CL Pauwels at Large

My next stop in exploring the theme of family in my novels (namely the broken, dysfunctional, non-traditional ones) is more light-hearted: baseball! And since most pitchers and catchers report this week, spring is just around the corner.

All three books in my “Toledo Trilogy” take my MCs out to the ballgame – namely, to see the Toledo Mud Hens.

Jadz in Forty & Out and Nate in Burned Bridges both spend time at Fifth Third Field cheering on the Hens. In Unwelcome Ties, Toni deliberately buys her downtown condo because it overlooks the ballfield, carrying on the family tradition she gained from her beloved adopted father.

Again, I didn’t make the connection as to why this happened (other than that I love baseball) until much later when the common thread of family made itself known.

One of my earliest memories is of baseball and my grandfather, who (with Grandma) housed and raised me most of my first five years while Mom struggled to find her way. He often sat alone on the back porch in the dusk, fiddling with the transistor radio to catch the Detroit Tigers broadcast bouncing off Lake Erie to the north. When I was 10, the Tigers won the World Series, and a colorful metal badge (Hot pink with black tiger stripes? It was the ‘60s!) commemorating the season hung over the clothes dryer in Grandma’s kitchen for a long, long time.

The game is in my blood.

Family lore says Grandpa played semi-pro baseball back in the day until he blew out his ankle sliding into the bag. My Uncle Don (mentioned in the marriage post) played major league baseball for a short time, as did his son, my eldest cousin. Neither of them made the big time for more than a handful of games, but we did get to watch Jeff play in Tiger Stadium. Fortunately, my husband is also a fan, and our son (the lawyer from the adoption post) played ball from the time he could walk and all through high school.

Happy memories from my childhood are few and far between, but baseball is one of them. With all that history, how could I write a book so intertwined with family and not include the game?

Let’s go, Hens – play ball!

*The book Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn, not the Don Henley song!