Book Review: There’s Something Sinister in Center Field by Robert P. Ottone
Title: There’s Something Sinister in Center Field
Author: Robert P. Ottone
Release date: June 25th, 2025
*Huge thanks to the publisher for a digital copy of this one!*
You know what I love?
Baseball.
I know it’s not something I post about often, but since I was a little kid I’ve loved baseball. Where I grew up, we didn’t have baseball when I was a kid, though we could play it in Nakusp, about thirty minutes away. That would’ve been amazing, but my parents wouldn’t sign me up, and by the time I was hitch hiking and then got my license, I was focused on soccer and baseball in the area had kind of dried up. I played softball until I was sixteen or so, but again, moved away from it as I focused on other sports.
But man… how I wish I would’ve played baseball.
Over the last number of years, I’ve loved soooo many of Robert P. Ottone’s books, and shamefully, I actually don’t recall this one coming out. I feel like I might’ve seen it announced, but as we all know, there’s a bajillion books coming out every single week, but that’s still no excuse, ESPECIALLY when considering that earlier this year I was working with Robert and another publisher on helping out with a re-release of his phenomenal YA Lovecraftian releases The Triangle and The Deep.
But here we are, and recently, this publisher, Cemetery Gates Media, sent out a Stoker email blast and this was included.
Sign me up! I sent it to my Kindle and dove in right away. This one’s a middle grade spooky story and it was positively wonderful.
What I liked: I say this with no disrespect to Robert or CGM publishing it, but this book from start to finish is simple. And that’s what works so well for it. Also, it’s what’s within this simple story that really elevates it.
The book follows an early-teen baseball team that has to practice at a different field, after a mix-up. Not realizing there is a haunted cemetery near the outfield, the baseball ghosts that haunt it decide to take one of the living players and won’t give him back, unless the living can beat the dead team in a best-of-three showdown.
There’s no surprises here, and if you’re reading this, you’ll know the outcome, but again, push that aside.
This book is perfect to introduce your kids to a lot of the themes that crop up in ‘adult’ horror novels. We get scares, good-versus-evil and working together to overcome an obstacle. Ottone himself is an amazing storyteller, which is showcased throughout. We get sooooo many learning moments within. We see that girls can play baseball just as good as boys. We see young love, we see accepting friends when there are differences and we see how banding together and standing up against bullies and for what is right, will always be the right thing to do.
The diamond in the rough here (pun kind of intended) is that this is centered around baseball. A sport that has a unique ebb-and-flow of game play and works so well to show how you can over come the lowest lows, but also supporting each other through the highest highs.
What I didn’t like: I typically am never a fan of POV changes, and that is featured within here. Each chapter jumps between a few different players, which made for a challenging time for this reader at the beginning.
Why you should buy this: If you have a younger reader and you want to start getting them into reading the scary books, this is a perfect one. Ottone is an amazing teacher within his MG and YA books and that is so perfectly on display here. Fans of fun baseball books, books where friends work together and books that teach valuable lessons will all want to line up and read this one, because it was just fanastic.
5/5
