Heart of a Champion

As a Bay Area native, Deuker has an easy familiarity with his setting, believably referencing names of the parks, describing the geographical proximity of the districts involved, and explaining the vagaries of the high school athletic competitions in Redwood City. In general, the Bay Area is a fitting setting for a baseball story because of its consistently fitting weather, accessible public transit, and plethora of sporting complexes.

It is important to remember that the book was written in and is set in 1993, a time before cell phones and tablet computers. Though baseball’s timelessness makes this decades-old novel feel relevant, there are aspects that mark it as a late-20th century work. For instance, there are no significant characters of color, despite the fact that the Bay Area is incredibly diverse. Another feature that is at a variance with today’s culture: The freedom of movement the novel’s teenagers have. Seth shows up at a park by himself and engages kids he doesn’t know as a tween—something hard to imagine today.