THE LAST OUT

This third baseball novel in the series by Tex Maule, associate editor of Sports Illustrated, bristles with baseball terminology, trite adjectival descriptions, poor grammar and the names dropped of famous New York Yankees who are fictionalized in a story revolving around Jim Beatty, the Yankee star shortstop. His knee injury is overcome until a spectacular play and a second strain remove him from the line-up forever. Rejecting contact with baseball Jim goes into law practice. In his first case the judge places Jim's client, a small Mexican boy guilty of stealing a baseball glove, in the fledgling lawyer's custody with the stipulation that Jim take over management of the youngster's team. Jim's decision to continue with his growing law practice and his team of young ball players, rather than to return to professional baseball as a Yankee scout, concludes the book. This poorly written and contrived tale fails to come to life in the game descriptions or in the central character, who is as rubber-stamped as an illustration on a cereal box.