The Boy Who Saved Baseball by John H. Ritter

Sports fans will be happy to see that there is finally a Maud Hart Lovelace nominee for them. You don't have to love baseball to like this book, but I'm sure it helps. It is the saga of a small town steeped in baseball history that is about to lose its field, and it's heart and soul, when developers start building huge suburban homes where the field has stood for years and years. The kids of the town are given one last chance to save their field and their town, but they have to win a difficult baseball game, and they know they are not up to the challenge. But a boy from the country shows up in town, and he knows how to convince a reclusive baseball legend to be their coach, and he also has a theory about how to master the art of hitting. The story has some twists and turns, but primarily it is the story of a group of kids working hard to take on the world. As I said, baseball lovers will be happy.