Courtney Morgan is a female knuckle-ball pitcher trying to break into professional baseball.
Parker Westfall is an aging slugger with one last chance at the ultimate carrot--a spot on a major-league roster. She's gorgeous, and he's having the season of his life. Together, they'll try to change a losing team's fortunes on their way to the big show. But when tragedy strikes, will their dreams still matter?
The Fat Lady's Low, Sad Song is about what it means to be part of a team, and part of a community in the heartbreaking world of minor league ball.
Kirkus review:
Debut author Kaufmanโs knockabout yarn paints a grubby but beguiling portrait of minor league purgatory with its cruddy locker rooms, lewd dugout banter, and belligerent fans, all lit in the twilight glow of misbegotten major league dreams. His prose captures both the thrill of the gameโโthe ball strikes the top of his gloveโs webbing, and when Montgomery falls back to earth like Icarus, having touched the sun, the ball stays in his gloveโโand the crass commercialism behind the heroics. (โIf I keep the same guys on, year after year, we become a lower-tier product, indistinguishable from roller derby,โ the team owner says, explaining that the need to draw fans with the illusion that they are watching future major leaguers means Parkerโs contract wonโt be renewed despite his great season.) Parker and his teammates canโt win, but readers will still root for them.
Brian Kaufman is the curriculum editor for an online junior college. In other universes, he is a pro wrestler, a radio talk show host, a heavy metal guitarist. In this universe, he lives with his wife and dog in the Colorado mountains, writing novels and avoiding moderation or any pretense of maturity.