Uncle Drew and the Bat Dodger

by Thomas Cochran

Nine-year-old Teddy Caldwell had no idea the summer was going to be so pivotal for so many folks, or that his very bad day was going to be the beginning of a grand adventure. When a solid line drive connects with his neighbor’s window, Teddy is sure he’ll end up in jail and his parents will never let him stay home alone again! What starts as a disaster becomes a turning point in Teddy’s life. He and his strange neighbor, Uncle Drew Weems, begin a correspondence that takes some surprising turns. Over the course of the summer, Teddy learns about Uncle Drew’s life; with stories of barnstorming baseball players and Jim Crow racism, Uncle Drew spins a tale of Depression-era America that fascinates and disturbs young Teddy.

Wrapped inside the notes, mementos, and ephemera passed between the neighbors is the tale of Uncle Drew’s odyssey with New Orleans Po’ Boy Baseball Club player Bopeep Shines. Bopeep was a promising Negro League pitcher who stepped out of organized ball and into mystery—a mystery that Uncle Drew fills in. With ledgers of their bets he relays the story of their games as Bopeep pitched out white batters across the South. Details of their journey emerge slowly, experiences so foreign to Teddy that he has trouble understanding them.

Through the use of typical conflicts and language of the time, author Thomas Cochran paints a vivid and fact-filled tale that follows both Teddy’s personal growth and the bitter disillusionment of a talented black man during the worst of times. With an uplifting twist at the end, Cochran’s tale is sure to appeal to many audiences and provide a welcome tool for classroom reading and discussion.

248 pages, Paperback

Published February 26, 2016

About the author

THOMAS COCHRAN is the author of "Running the Dogs" & "Roughnecks". He lives in West Fork, Arkansas.

Reviews

[Thomas Averill]

I finished Thomas Cochran's Uncle Drew and the Bat Dodge with such great pleasure. This YA novel is masterfully crafted, plotted, and written. It is so very satisfying that I'll be getting copies for my baseball nephews, for sure. Cochran makes such a convincing set of stories, versions and documents about the life of Negro Baseball League dropout Cantrell "Bopeep" Shines that the reader wants to believe the novel is true. And it is true to so many things: an unflinching look at racism, baseball history, travel in the South, and Uncle Drew's experience (Uncle Drew is the white boy/man who goes on a three-year barnstorming tour with Bopeep). It is also true to the reality of being a nine-year-old boy, the neighbor kid Teddy, who is hearing Uncle Drew's story, and who is just starting to comprehend and deal with the same things, bullying in particular, in his world. I thank Thomas Cochran for putting this book into the world!