Two Hot Dogs with Everything (review)

If the Sluggers seem doomed to be the goats of the Major Leagues, it's sure not the fault of Danny Gurkin. He's raised superstitious ritual to an art in the hope of breaking the Sluggers' 107-year slump, engendered by the Curse of the Poison Pretzel, in which bubble-gum magnate and team founder Manchester Boddlebrooks was done in by his avaricious younger brother. Not content to avoid sidewalk cracks, eat requisite game-day hot dogs, close windows tightly, and arrange body and clothing positions with obsessive care, Danny makes a trip to the deteriorating Boddlebrooks Mansion, where he meets the ancient, mysterious caretaker, procures samples of a bubble-gum flavor that Boddlebrooks never released to the market, and quickly becomes convinced that chewing this gum is responsible for the sudden upswing in the Sluggers' performance. Sleazy Diamond Bob Honeysuckle IV, owner of the rival Texas Tornadoes, is also convinced Danny controls the Sluggers' fortunes, and it's a fight to the finish between Danny's will and Diamond Bob's dirty tricks, with the league pennant as the prize. While Haven's baseball fantasy lacks the tight, controlled plotting of Bruce Brooks' Throwing Smoke (BCCB 5/00), it also pokes enough good-natured fun at fan obsession to compel avid baseball camp followers to laugh at their own manic reflections, and it packs enough genuine tension over the efficacy of superstitious mumbo jumbo to keep readers in suspense. Reviewed from an unillustrated galley.