N.J. Public Relations Professional Publishes Novel About the Business of Baseball

BLACKWOOD, N.J. - April 27, 2016 - PRLog -- What would happen if, during a Major League Baseball strike, owners voted to elevate their Triple-A affiliates to fill the rosters and keep revenues flowing?

It's an idea that's been kicked around during past strikes and lockouts, and those reports inspired Swordfish Communications' founder Gary Frisch to take the scenario to its logical conclusion.  Squeeze Play, his first novel, is a "what if" that explores how the fans, players and owners would respond, and how the game itself might change.  He self-published the novel as an e-book.

Frisch, a 27-year public relations professional, says as a fan he was exasperated by repeated strikes by privileged ballplayers as he was growing up.

"I always thought that if the owners really did give the minor leaguers a shot, the fans would adopt them like their own.  They are relatable to the working person.  They have toiled in the trenches, knowing only one in 10 ever makes it to the Majors from A-ball," he says.  "Yet they play on, mainly for the love of the game.  That's why I dedicated the book to every player who, in the words of the great Roger Kahn, is good enough to dream."

Squeeze Play tells the story of one of them, Lew Pearson, the aging player-manager of the Triple-A Indianapolis Outlaws, affiliated with the Cleveland Indians.  Having only had a "cup of coffee" in the Majors, Lew sees the call-up as the opportunity he's dreamed of his whole life, even as he knows intellectually the minor leaguers are only the pawns of the owners.

"I like to think of it as the great American novel about the great American Pastime," Frisch says.

Squeeze Play is available exclusively on Amazon Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Squeeze-Play-Gary-Frisch-ebook/dp/B...).