What happens when a well-known sportswriter for the Boston Herald discovers not only the longest-kept secret in the history of baseball, but the biggest sports secret of all time? Craig Smart, a scribe who has never embraced the game of baseball, meets the oldest surviving Negro Baseball League player - a ninety-five-year-old blind man named Roscoe Braun. As a result, Smart makes astounding discoveries about the long-defunct Negro Leagues, revelations that threaten to shake the foundations of "Black Ball" history forever. How ironic that a franchise existing for two decades in the shadow of more glamorous and accomplished teams, such as Satchel Paige's Kansas City Monarchs, Josh Gibson's Homestead Grays, and the legendary Indianapolis Clowns, can somehow provide present and future generations with "Answers to the Big Questions," including how to live longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives. Smart's discoveries have far-reaching effects beyond the world of sports, influencing music, race relations, religion, human potential, and more. BLACKBALLED, Patrick Rowlee's third novel, is a ground-breaking tale of epic proportions that actually becomes more compelling and astounding after the reader finishes it and realizes uncanny links with the author's life and reality in general. Not only does this saga rank with some of the most memorable sports novels of all time, it effortlessly transports the reader to another time and dimension, linking it with such masterpieces of the game as W.P. Kinsella's FIELD OF DREAMS and Bernard Malamud's THE NATURAL. "Patrick Rowlee not only knows his stuff regarding sports, but writes an athletic prose as well. I've always loved sports literature and Patrick's work stands up to comparison with the best of it. Mr. Rowlee has proven he's in the literary game for the long haul, and I'm damned glad of it " --- Gerald Locklin, Poet / Literary Critic / Professor Emeritus, English Literature, CSU - Long Beach