Bücher von Monte Dutton

Clyde Kinlaw is a washed-up baseball coach who wants to prove it isn't so.Kinlaw was a good ballplayer who became a loyal company man once he retired. He managed his old team, the Portland Loggers. Now he's a scout who doesn't feel as if the new generation of talent evaluators puts any stake in his judgment anymore. He wants to prove them wrong but doesn't know how.Then Kinlaw stumbles upon Taiquon Wattson.Kinlaw's only ally in the Portland front office, Frank Staley Jr., sends him to evaluate Ryne Standback, a first baseman considered one of the country's top high-school prospects. Standback doesn't impress Kinlaw, who dismisses him as a privileged white kid with all the skill money can buy. What draws Kinlaw's attention is a catcher on the other team. Wattson has all the tools but none of the attention. He's a poor kid who lives with his grandmother in a predominantly black town on the banks of the Savannah River. He's known locally for his football, not his baseball, skills. He's a catcher because it's the only position he can play without owning his own glove. Teams always provide a mitt. Taiquon is as raw as the crappie he hauls out of the river to help feed the family. All he knows about baseball is approximately how to play it.Stay away from Sandberg, Kinlaw advises Staley. Let Kinlaw take Wattson under his wing and make him a player. Wattson's not ready. The minor leagues would chew him up and spit him out. Staley finds a place for Kinlaw and Staley to hide. They get to know each other on a long, gradual drive to Texas, where Wattson is playing semi-pro ball and Kinlaw is coaching him.Kinlaw is not rid of Standback, however. Drafted first by Houston, Standback predictably flops in Triple-A, where his agent insisted he be assigned. All of a sudden, Staley smells a bargain and dispatches Kinlaw, already in Texas, to Corpus Christi for a second look. The humbled Standback, his life in ruins, sees that Kinlaw is the only scout who ever dealt with him honestly.Both young men change. Wattson loses his innocence. Standback loses his arrogance. Kinlaw regains his respect.

A veteran sports columnist unexpectedly loses his job.A rebellious young writer takes a weed-clouded trip to Southern California with a tawdry dropout.An English teacher at a prep school toils in vain on a breakthrough novel, watching his teen-aged pupils grow rebellious and decadent.All are related. All are drawn together as they gradually learn they are pawns in a vast illegal conspiracy.The columnist's new job is not one he chooses. The young writer mistakenly believes she is selling drugs by choice and rationalizes it in the name of writing a tell-all novel. The teacher sees in his charges mistakes he has already made.One is another's daughter. She is the other's lover.Everything will be fine as long as they are obedient. Don't Ask, Don't Tell.Against the backdrop of a presidential election, a group of powerful men work to corner the market on the illicit sale of marijuana. They have members with ties to tobacco, entertainment, law enforcement, national security, and politics.Innocent people are being shot down in the streets by policemen who never are punished. Could this be more than a coincidence?The plan seems perfect ... until the election of Martin Gaynes, a man as corrupt as those who run the Consortium. Extreme measures are necessary as a potential dictatorship rises in the tumult.No one, no matter how far from the center of power, is safe. No one can afford to mind his (or her) own business. Don't Ask, Don't Tell becomes dangerous, impractical, and deadly.

Straight from the mouths of the world's most famous drivers and entertainers comes a unique and hilarious volume of NASCARUs wit and wisdom. Contributors include Kyle Petty, Jeff Foxworthy, Jeff Gordon, and many others. Illustrations throughout.