Length13h 21m
About this audiobook
He could not hit a curveball. He could see everything else.
Mason City, Missouri, 1921. Sam Bell keeps the scorebook for a team that will never matter, filling the margins with a private notation only he can read — the pitcher whose arm is failing, the fielder who can't move left, the hitter who chases what he can't reach. When a Cardinals scout in road-dusty shoes notices what the boy is really writing down, Sam is drawn into the strangest experiment in baseball: Branch Rickey's plan to stop buying players and start growing them.
What follows is the building of a machine — tryout camps, contracts, a map of the country pinned with circles — that will produce champions and change the sport forever. But the machine runs on boys. One of them is Sam's brother.
A novel about the price of building something that works.
Audiobook details
GenreHistorical Fiction
Length13 hrs 21 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJun 1, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Team That Grew Its Own Stars: Prologue
35Part IV: The Game Changes
2Part I: The Poor Team’s Problem
36Chapter 28: The Cardinals Arrive Early
3Chapter 1: The Boy Who Kept Score
37Chapter 29: A Different Kind of Scout
4Chapter 2: The Scout with Dust on His Shoes
38Chapter 30: The Player No One Liked
5Chapter 3: St. Louis Is Broke
39Chapter 31: The Pennant Machine
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6Chapter 4: The Failed Manager
40— Interlude: October 1934: The Gashouse Gang —
7— Interlude: January 1921: The Commissioner —
41Chapter 32: The Cost of Being First
8Chapter 5: The Price of a Prospect
42Chapter 33: Tommy Comes Home
9Chapter 6: The Map on the Wall
43Chapter 34: The Report
10Chapter 7: Not Stars Yet
44Chapter 35: What Everybody Copies
11Part II: Building the Machine
45— Interlude: 1936–1941: What Everybody Copies —
12Chapter 8: Signed for a Train Ticket
46Chapter 36: The Field Behind the Field
13Chapter 9: The Lowest Rung
47Epilogue
14Chapter 10: Teaching Baseball
48Author’s Note
15Chapter 11: The Notebook
49A Note on the History
16Chapter 12: Numbers No One Asked For
50What the Farm System Was
17Chapter 13: Tommy Tries Out
51The Controversy
18Chapter 14: Too Many Boys
52The Cost to Players
19Chapter 15: The Old Baseball Men
53What This Book Compressed or Simplified
20Chapter 16: The Commissioner Notices
54A Note on Statistics
21— Interlude: November 1929: What Landis Sees —
55Cast of Characters
22Chapter 17: Buck Learns to Pitch
56Historical People
23Chapter 18: Eli Changes His Swing
57Fictional Characters
24Part III: Proof, Pressure, and Backlash
58Source Notes
25Chapter 19: First Crop
59Part I: The Poor Team’s Problem
26Chapter 20: The Boy from the System
60Part II: Building the Machine
27Chapter 21: Everybody Wants In
61Part III: Proof, Pressure, and Backlash
28Chapter 22: Landis Cuts the Wires
62Part IV: The Game Changes
29— Interlude: March 1932: The Hearing —
63A Note on Invented Dialogue for Historical Figures
30Chapter 23: Rickey’s Defense
64Bibliography
31Chapter 24: Tommy’s Release
65Primary Sources and Archives
32Chapter 25: Sam Quits the Notebook
66Secondary Sources
33Chapter 26: The Gashouse Future
67For Further Reading
34Chapter 27: Cheap or Smart?
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