The late M.Z. Ribalow served as artistic director of New River Dramatists. He was an award-winning poet, author and playwright, whose plays received some 180 productions worldwide.

“Wonderful, utterly enjoyable novel, in which a love of baseball infuses every page. Great lines, great characters and a warm, seductive easygoing style that feels like settling in for a mid-season double header on a perfect summer day with, well, peanuts and crackerjacks. Like all the best fiction about baseball, it evokes a past that all true baseball fans seem to share. A lovely job”—Richard Dresser, writer of Rounding Third and Below the Belt; “Rich and fun throughout...suffused with a deep love and respect for the game...I truly liked the protagonist as well...it was a treat”—Lee Blessing, writer of Cobb and A Walk in the Woods; “Meir Ribalow has written a book that truly belongs among the monuments of baseball literature. It is full of learning and lore, wit and wisdom. It does indeed taste of peanuts and crackerjack, and one can feel the soothing breeze that flows in from left field. The story is well conceived, and the writing is crisp and fluent. Readers will find this book as engaging as the game itself”—N. Scott Momaday, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Medal of Arts; “Just like the perpetually vanishing game it celebrates, this novel is gentle, breezy, deceptively light-hearted, and about most of everything that matters.”—Glen Hirshberg, author of American Morons and The Book of Bunk.