The Genius Who Saved Baseball is the feel-good novel America has been waiting for. Robert E. Ingram has created an ongoing story in these pages that will make baseball fans and book lovers feel completely like he’s hit a home run with his compelling story of how a young Charlie Collier teams up with a music superstar. country, Big T McCraw, to lead Nashville’s first baseball team, the Knights, to the World Series.
The story begins when Charlie’s father, Rex, is hired by Big T McCraw to be part of the executive staff of his newly formed baseball team. Big T wants his team to win, so he has his executives get together and discuss various strategies that could help the team outperform the competition. While many ideas are offered, none seems to be the winning formula the Knights need.
Charlie enters. In one of the executive meetings, Rex mentions that his son Charlie is a teenage genius. Although he is only fourteen years old, Charlie is already in college and has written an article arguing that today’s baseball analysis not only ruins the game for the fans, but also affects the quality of the players’ performance. . Charlie’s teacher is skeptical of Charlie’s argument and only gives him a C-, the first time Charlie hasn’t received an A. But this upset only motivates Charlie to test his theory, and when Rex mentions the theory to Big T, Big T instantly. he wants to hear more and takes Charlie and his mom to Nashville to share his ideas.
You can imagine what happens from there: the team decides to adopt Charlie’s theory, known as Project Baseball, as their winning strategy that will take them all the way to the World Series. Charlie’s theory is proven to be fact and even the detractors end up convinced.
It is true that the plot of the novel is predictable, but the characters are not. Ingram creates a plethora of dynamic, quirky and highly believable characters who are easy to love. There’s Maddy, the coffee shop barista who wants to become a country music singer-songwriter; there’s Rex’s uncle Frank and his best friend Dustin, who grew up playing baseball and supporting Charlie’s dreams; there’s The Rammer, the Knights’ executive consultant, and Mrs. Scully, who also works for Big T—I need, I mean, a little romance to develop between them. Of course, we can’t forget Alfred, Charlie’s best friend, and there are many, many more; I didn’t even mention all the featured Knights players.
Author Robert Ingram is clearly a huge baseball fan, and peppers baseball terms, trivia, and history throughout the book; For those less familiar with America’s greatest pastime, a glossary of terms is provided. Regardless, anyone who likes a heartwarming story will embrace this book.
Of course, Charlie and his friends have some bumps in the road to success. I’m not going to go into those so as not to spoil your fun, but I assure you, The Genius Who Saved Baseball is full of emotional moments. , humor and strength of character that will inspire anyone to overcome their own obstacles. It’s also a self-help book, as at the end, Ingram includes his “Nine Entry Bonus,” which focuses on nine key lessons from the book, beginning with “Developing a Positive Outlook on Life,” and then discusses how Charlie and his friends exemplified each lesson.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book. I’m not a baseball fan myself, but who doesn’t love a story of winning against the odds? I absolutely fell in love with the characters and didn’t want the story to end, and I think you’ll feel the same when you read The Genius Who Saved Baseball.
