Whistling on the Stair
by
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The batter ahead of me flailed unsuccessfully at two screwballs and a changeup, giving me little opportunity to study the pitcher’s stuff on that particular night. I closed my mind to everything but the task at hand, eyeballed the pitcher and dug the cleats of my right shoe into the dirt. I thought the lefthander might push me away from the plate with that little fastball of his so I prepared to lean back as his heater bore in on me. Sure enough, it passed less than an inch from my shirt. That, I knew, was his set-up pitch. Once in a great while he’d throw that pitch twice in a row, but somehow I felt this was not one of those times.
There is nothing better in the game of baseball than being right, mostly because it happens so rarely for a hitter. The reality is that the pitcher has all of the advantages, sort of like a wide receiver in football, who knows where he’s going, while the defensive back hasn’t a clue. The pitcher knows what he’s going to throw, where he’s going to throw it, at what speed he’s going to throw it — the hitter is blind and deaf.
There is a reward for a hitter who gets it right. If he’s really lucky as well as smart, he strikes the ball with the “sweet spot” of his bat. That, as it happens, was the result of my fifty-cent analysis that particular time at the plate. The baseball leaped off of my bat, arced toward right-center and disappeared over the 390-mark. As I circled the bases, I marveled at the simple beauty of the moment. Why, I wondered, couldn’t there be a “sweet spot” in life away from the game?
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About the Book
Ambition, deceit, and revenge, driven by feelings first of love and then of hate, motivate the major characters in Whistling on the Stair.
It begins in 1981, when D.C. O’Neill, a minor league baseball player, finds himself pulled in several directions by conflicting forces in his life. Leaving his wife Jane and daughter Bobbi behind in Lincoln, Nebraska, he heads off for his third year of spring practice with the California Angels in their Arizona training facility. There he meets the mysterious Kovacek brothers; are they friendly, disinterested baseball fans, as they claim? he wonders, or dangerous characters intent, for reasons only they understand, on disrupting his life?
Back home, Jane attempts to help a neighbor and friend deal with the abuse she is suffering at the hands of her husband; Bobbi begins her acting career at the age of four; and Jane faces mounting frustration brought on by the complexities of a life that doesn’t challenge her long-stifled creative self. Then, D.C.’s professional baseball career reaches a critical juncture.
Matters come to a head when one of the Kovacek brothers decides to take drastic action on what seems to be a revenge motive.
Finally, D.C. sees the possibility of advancing to the major leagues, while Bobbi experiences notable success as an actress. Then, a bright future for both of them takes a dramatic turn when a family tragedy puts their dreams on hold.
D.C. has to unravel the mystery of the Kovacek brothers as he attempts to establish himself as a professional baseball player and, at the same time, hold his family together.
About the Author
Saylor Smith grew up in Nebraska, coming of age in the small town of Lyons in the mid-1950s. He taught English and advised publications staffs in high schools in California and Oregon until his retirement in 2002. He lives in Eugene, Oregon with his wife and editor Karen. Smith is the author of two other novels, Serpent’s Tooth and Stealing First.