Golden Arm

A boy lives in a trailer park off Aurora Avenue in Seattle with his mom and half-brother. He is a good pitcher on his high school baseball team. However, his team was suspended for half of one season because most of the team got in trouble. To make matters worse, the trailer park he lives in and the driving range he works at are going to be torn down to build townhomes. A guy from the rich part of town offers him a chance to live with them and attend that school. His pitching ability can be the one thing that pushes them over the hump to win the state championship. It almost works out. However, his brother's involvement with drugs nearly derails everything.

The book has a fairly accurate portrayal of the landscape of North Seattle. It does take some liberty with the high schools in the area. (There is no "Broadview", "North Central" or "Laurelhurst" high) However, most of the rest of the high schools in the city are real. There are trailer parks near Aurora with a driving range and Home Depot nearby. The community center, donut shop and even the prostitutes on Aurora are also accurate depictions of the area. 

The personal and baseball side is not quite as believable. He seems to lack any significant struggles in his pitching. His "better than perfect" game just seems to happen. It seems the faults are not with his pitching, but with fielding. His brother seems to be able to get deeper into the drug business without any issues. Despite this, he quickly transforms from a flunk-out to a straight-A student. Then everything derails a couple minutes before the state championship game. Would a player really jump the fence minutes before starting the game, thinking he is the only one that could save his brother from a drug deal gone bad? It feels like it was a reach to temper the out-of-control expectations that were set up. (It would have been more believable if her were jumped when trying to visit his brother earlier.) The author was still able to have him squeeze into the draft (in part via a good word from a drafter teammate.) It just wasn't as believable or satisfying as it could have been.