Summary

King asks his reader to give his next story a chance even though it is about baseball. He admits he wanted to tell a story about mid-century baseball when the play was rough and the umpire’s word was law. He notes that because it is a story of his, the reader should “watch out for the blade” (306).

In “Blockade Billy,” King is interviewing the narrator, George “Granny” Grantham, a resident of a nursing home, about William Blakely, known in baseball as Blockade Billy. Grantham and Blakely had both played with the New Jersey Titans. Grantham had been a third-base coach. He explains to King that the rules of the game were the same, but it was different. No calls were decided using video playback, the umpire’s calls were final.

Grantham tells King that the team’s troubles began when the catcher...