Ruth Marini of the Dodgers

by Mel Cebulash

Eighteen-year-old Ruth was the star of her high school baseball team and the Los Angeles Dodgers thinks she may be good enough to become professional baseball's first female player.

Genres: Young Adult

141 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Mel Cebulash grew up in Union City, NJ where he developed his athletic skills in schoolyard games. Rather than pursue a career in sports, he chose to write about them. Many of his published works, both fiction and non-fiction, reflect his life-long fascination with sports and his special interest in writing for young people.

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book in a trilogy (Ruth Marini on the Mound) that was my absolute favorite as a young'n, and it totally went out of print and then I found it again, rereleased as a set of "back-in-print!" paperbacks and so naturally I snatched them up. The first book, Ruth Marini of the Dodgers, reads like young reader, of course, but oh, the fond memories! Ruth—yes, she's a girl—is scouted and signed by the Dodgers straight out of high school, and this is the story of her launch into life as the first female professional baseball player. Written in the early 1980s, the book abounds in eye-rolling cliche, but the baseball writing is pretty good (especially for its age-level aims) and Ruth is great as a sassy, "I'm just as good as you, boys!" pitcher. Cebulash rocks the "It's like Jackie Robinson! But with girls!" angle pretty well. Anyway, good books or not, I LOVE THEM. ;D