The Young Pitcher

Ken Ward Series #3

by Zane Grey

""The Young Pitcher"" is a novel written by Zane Grey, first published in 1911. The story follows the life of Ken Ward, a young baseball pitcher who dreams of making it to the big leagues. Ken is a talented player, but lacks the confidence to succeed. With the help of his coach and teammates, Ken learns to overcome his insecurities and become a star pitcher. Along the way, he faces numerous challenges, including a rival pitcher who will stop at nothing to win, and a personal tragedy that threatens to derail his career. ""The Young Pitcher"" is a classic coming-of-age tale that explores the themes of perseverance, friendship, and the pursuit of one's dreams.1911. Illustrated. One of Zane Grey's Ken Ward series of books for boys. Millions of readers have hailed Zane Grey as a writer of Western stories but, strange to say, few of them know that he was once a college and professional baseball player. Here he applies his knowledge of baseball to the story of how, as a new freshman at Wayne College, Ken Ward finds a way to win recognition through his pitching skills. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Genres: Sports, Classics, Baseball, Westerns, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Pearl Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West. As of June 2007, the Internet Movie Database credits Grey with 110 films, one TV episode, and a series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater based loosely on his novels and short stories.

Reviews

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book I’ve read by this author.
I did like Ken Ward and felt rather sorry for him at first for being a freshman at this college, but he took care of things. Dare I mention running and potatoes? I did have to smile several times while reading this book because of some of the things the characters did.
It did feel a little hard to connect with Ken or the other characters because of the writing style. While still enjoyable, it has an older writing style flavor, and I felt more of an onlooker of the story. The baseball games were a bit hard to follow, partly because of how they were written, and partly because the rules of the game have changed a bit since this book was first published in 1911. However, if you really know the game, you might enjoy it.

This is not a Christian book, but it is clean except for a few mentions of drinking or smoking.

[Ben Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to gain a perspective of how baseball was played in the early 20th century. There was a seeming emphasis on bunting and base stealing that just does not occur today. However, the story was rather simple and fairly predictable, which was to be expected. I think the thing that bothered me the most about this book was the over-emoting of all characters. People seemed to over react over the most mundane situations. It got annoying after a while.

[Richard Koerner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baseball isn’t my thing and as I perused my mulitple Zane Grey e-book, I realized that this particular book was a sequel to one I had just read about a young man going into Forestry. This book had him going to college during freshmen year at the age of sixteen (which, I am guessing, was not all that unusual). It was extremely interesting due to the information about college and college life at the beginning of the 20th century and the baseball was not annoying to my enjoyment. I intend to continue on reading about the life of this character, Ken Ward, in the next Zane Grey novel.

[wayne vizcarrondo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What it means to be a team

I am a baseball fan. I love the game and this book reminded me of what to large degree is missing from today's game.
Baseball is a team game, making sacrifices to advance the team's success and not individual glory.
I didn't realize that Zane Grey wrote three books about the sport before his western successes or that he played the game for years. Its clearly evident how much he loved the game and his descriptions of what it takes to win.
His descriptions of the young pitchers control remained me of Greg Maddox. Being able to locate and even allowing hitters to make weak contact is the difference in being a pitcher as opposed to the current collection of uncontrolled throwers.
If you want to once again believe in the beauty of team and baseball this is the book for you

[Axslingin · Rating 1 out of 5]

First off, this was NOT written by Zane Grey. It looks like it was written by a European who attempted to brush up on baseball. The descriptions give it away. No American would use that kind of terminology to describe a baseball game, and certainly wouldn't give the "big game" a soccer/chanting feel to it. Not Zane Grey and a lousy story to boot. Skip this piece of trash.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zane Grey is a great storyteller. This story published in 1905 about a college baseball team was interesting in how the sport was played at that time. The book is also not politically correct by today's standards so one must be willing to take for what it is, an old story written at a time different from today. Not being a sports person, I doubt I will read it again.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful reading 📚

A will written college sports novella with interesting characters. The story line is about growing up and the events of college. I would recommend this novella to anyone who is looking for a fun read. Enjoy reading 🔰2021 😇

[Dan DalMonte · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a cute and well-written story, although there is nothing of substance. It is about a young man who finds in himself a talent for pitching by chucking potatoes as a persecuted university freshman. He does well.

[Monte Lamb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very typical sports book of the early 20th century where the college boys are pure in heart, great in spirit, and perfect gentlemen. It is interesting to read how sportsmanship was viewed during this period. I had fun with reading it but many will find it out of date in its views.

[Rex Mock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grabs you and never lets go

The characters felt like the Knute Rockne story. Zane Grey is amazing. It doesn't matter how long the book has been in print it is classic.

[james t. guinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Typical zane grey

Great story.. Grey took this old third baseman back to a simpler time when character, integrity, and love for the game superseded all else.. so refreshing!!

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fine book if you want to hear about every play on every baseball games for 8 games with some excited yells in between.

[Mattaniah Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun quick read, enjoyed it

[Fred Provoncha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

No, I didn’t go into either the children’s section of Barnes & Noble or my local library in order to find The Young Pitcher. This 1924 juvenile by Zane Grey was available through the Gutenberg Project and I couldn’t resist revisiting the kind of sports novel I used to consume in elementary school and early junior high school. With a few exceptions like Bang the Drum Slowly, You Know Me, Al!, The Natural, The Green Helmet (a really old racing novel), and some non-fiction books about sports, you don’t see many adult novels about sports. Maybe, it’s because the plots are predictable. A young person with great heart shows tremendous potential and seems to be on a meteoric rise before some flaw causes that person to break down, fall down, and fail before picking himself or herself up and moving on to the championship, symbolic victory, or transformation. I used to read the likes of John Roberts Tunis and Jackson Scholz (sic), riding the rollercoaster with each protagonist—even though I knew how it was going to be.

The Young Pitcher begins in the world of university hazing. It has the typical personality grudges for this genre and a remarkable foreshadowing of the tension that exists between professional sports and collegiate athletics, today. This novel is WHOLESOME, IDEALISTIC, and charming in spite of its utter predictability. The pace is such that it could have been serialized from chapter to chapter (and maybe it was, I’m not sure) and it had some moments to cheer and moments to breathe easier.

And even with my longtime fascination with baseball, I was confused about a couple of ideas in the book. At one point, it seemed like the captain of the home team had chosen to take the field much like a football team would win the coin flip and opt to defend a certain goal rather than receive the opening kick-off. At another point, it seemed like the coach only chose nine men for the varsity team in order to keep them at the training table, yet there were some players on the bench and one other pitcher other than the title’s protagonist, Ken Ward.

I’m not really sure that I can recommend such a predictable, juvenile, and possibly misleading book to everyone, but it was entertaining for me to read it.

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing with my exploration of Zane Grey novels, The Young Pitcher is actually the eighth of his books, second in the series of Ken Ward novels. It was published in 1911 well over 100 years ago. Trigger Warning for racial and/or cultural insensitivities, and language that may contain misogyny. Recognize that this novel was published with a distinct, and less culturally sensitive milieu. Therefore, it behooves the reader to make allowances for the antiquated language.

Here, Ken Ward has returned from his summer in Arizona (The Young Forester) to begin Forestry school at university. He experiences hazing and consequently begins his college career negatively, but he has dreams to play for the school as a freshman baseball player, and when the current varsity squad becomes ineligible for NCAA type violations, the new freshmen get a chance to play varsity. As freshmen, there is very little expectation of athletic success, and so the university population is resentful of the new team.

This is a very predictable sports story, but it is delivered in a very similar, yet inimitable style to Grey's westerns. There is a concentrated focus on mood and setting. I liked the story, despite its predictability. Let this serve as my #48 of 50 Over 5 Years TBR for my reading goal 2023.

[Lou Wenger]

Great read

Great read for tens and adults. I have always loved reading Zane Grey. His descriptions are outstanding, whether he is describing a baseball game or a western desert.

[Michael Mayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Product Description

Ken Ward had not been at the big university many days before he realized the miserable lot of a freshman. At first he was sorely puzzled. College was so different from what he had expected. At the high school of his home town, which, being the capita