Rating: 
Summary: What kind of message is this?
Review: Okay, so I'm a Red Sox fan. Let's get that out of the way. I probably would not have bought this book if I was not a fan.
David Ferrell most definitely is not a Red Sox fan. In fact, having read this book, one might conclude that he is a Red Sox hater. In the book, the team discovers a pitching prodigy who can throw the ball 110 MPH. He seems to be the key to ending the Red Sox' 85-year "curse," until mutilated bodies begin to appear, along with evidence that the wunderkind pitcher is the killer. At this point, Red Sox management face a moral dilemma: do they surrender their pitcher and their World Series hopes, or do they cover it up out of self-interest. The Red Sox management (and, by implication, their fans) throw every scrap of ethics and morality out the window to win the World Series.
Ferrell doesn't get it. Red Sox fans have always wanted to win it all, but they are also the first to castigate any player, owner, or manager who does not meet their standards of hard work and high standing. Maybe in the hands of a Red Sox fan--Steven King, perhaps--this book might have amounted to something. Ferrell, a West Coast guy, blew it.
Even though Ferrell is a sports writer, he does not seem to know much about baseball. He has this pitching prodigy playing the outfield and batting as the designated hitter. This does not happen in baseball--especially in the American League--for a reason: batting and fielding expose pitchers to injury and is deemed too great a risk. There is no way any team would allow the century's greatest pitching prospect to play the field. The book is also littered with other minor baseball errors, inconsistencies and stereotypes. He portrays the Red Sox as the biggest bunch of malcontents in baseball history. While they have had their share of bad guys, never have they all been on the same team together. In other words, Ferrell again chooses to cast the team in the worst possible light.
In addition, the book lacks a single sympathetic character, not even the stressed-out manager, who emerges as the "hero" at the end. There is also not an ounce of suspense. The killer is identified about midway through. I kept waiting for a twist that never came. And anyway, the whole thing seems trite and outdated since the Sox did win the Series (with a group of self-proclaimed "idiots," one or two malcontents among them) two months ago.
Don't waste your time.
Rating: 
Summary: "Six murders¿when you think about it, it's almost nothing."
Review: Red Sox fans, and fans of any team that has consistently failed to win The Big One, will identify with the emotional and ethical dilemma in this black-humored novel about the lengths to which Red Sox management will go to protect their players so they can win the World Series. It's late in the season, and it looks as if this will finally be the Big Year, the year in which the Red Sox will overcome the Curse of the Bambino and bring home a World Series championship--if they can only keep the world from discovering that one of their players has a few unusual problems with his control--he is a serial murderer! Desperate to win, the front office is willing to rationalize and cover up even multiple murders ("Those murders, they're over and done with. Nothing we can do to change that") to end the agony of watching the team go down to defeat yet again.Ferrell writes a fast-paced baseball thriller filled with absurdities and told from a wryly casual point of view. In the opening pages, Ferrell offers a few red herrings about who the murderer might be from the large collection of dysfunctional players on the team, but the suspense disappears almost immediately as the killer is identified in the first third of the book. This is not a novel in which characters are individualized or undergo any major epiphanies. We know only a few characteristics about each one, and we don't identify with manager "Fish" Sharkey as much as we empathize with the frustration he's experienced--the same frustration fans have experienced with all the Red Sox "almost" teams over the years. The action and the murders both proceed in relatively straightforward and uncomplicated fashion, and as the bloody season progresses, management never seriously questions whether there are any values more important than winning. The author is clearly a Red Sox fan of long duration who recognizes the symptoms of Boston's communal frustration and understands the lengths to which some rabid fans and supporters might be willing to go for the first World Series victory since 1918. He pokes good-humored fun at management, the press, agents, players, and desperate fans, and his clear inclusion of himself among the fans makes the book less a hard-edged satire than an amusing meditation on "what if." Screwball will probably not win any prizes for its mystery or its complexity, but in its depiction of the excitement of baseball and the lure of October's biggest baseball prize, it is a delightful way to spend a warm summer afternoon--if one can't get out to the ballpark. 3 stars for mystery and style, 4 stars for fun. Mary Whipple
Rating: 
Summary: Satire or farce?
Review: SCREWBALL is based on an intriguing situation: The general manager of the Boston Red Sox, suffering from the Curse of the Babe, is confronted by a video showing Ron Kane, his superstar pitcher (who may be the greatest who ever lived) disposing of a decapitated body.
From there the focus moves to the general manager, Neville Wulfmeyer, and the niece of the owner of the BoSox who are being blackmailed by the sender of the video.
This is where the book begins to go haywire. Wulfmeyer has no scruples. At one point he suggests they kill someone else to throw the police off the trail. In another instance, he kidnaps the manager's wife to avoid paying a bonus.
Certainly hyperbole is a tried and true method in satire, but Ferrell has about as much subtlety as a gangsta rapper. Kane throws the baseball 111 mph on a consistent basis. Every single member of the Red Sox is a ding-a-ling. One of them tosses a teargas cannister into a carload full of nuns. Another holds up a liquor store. About the only stabilizing influence is the manager, Augie "Big Fish" Sharkey. He's developing a king-sized ulcer, guzzling Pepto Bismol like water, but he tries to do the right thing, investigating the murders on his own. Ferrell does him an injustice in the end with a completely unrealistic resolution, the implication of which would destroy Major League Baseball if it were true.
Something else that bothered me throughout the book was an Honus Wagner snuff can Sharkey carries as a good luck piece (until it's stolen). One of the reasons Wagner's baseball cards are worth over a half million a piece is because he objected to his image being used to sell tobacco to children, a hypocritical stand to take if he actually chewed the stuff (which I doubt).
Rating:
Summary: A well done debut effort
Review: So much of today's sports are based on economics. The team that can afford the expensive players can dominate. Hence, in baseball the Yankees with a 130 million dollar salary should and usually do crush a team such as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with their paltry 30 million dollar salary. They really shouldn't even be in the same league. It is actually quite ludicrous. David Ferrell, in his debut novel, SCREWBALL notes how vital dollars and cents are to the business of baseball and reveals just how crazy this has become in this biting satire.
The greatest baseball player of all time, Ron Kane, a rookie pitcher who could also field and hit, is acquired by the Boston Red Sox. He is a problem difficult to control causing much heartburn to manager Augie Sharkey. The team is capable of making it to the series but the players must remain under some kind of control. Devisive elements on the team are causing chaos. To top it off, in every city the Red Sox are visiting, men are being killed-- their heads cut off and cuts made in the scalp in an unusual pattern- actually like the seams of a baseball. Is it a fan? Not according to a videotape the owners are sent. It appears to be a player and an important one at that. The owners must pay a ransom to prevent the tape from getting into the hands of the law. The owners placing victory over everything else decide to cover up the tape and the murders. The question is- can they stop the killings?
SCREWBALL is a searing indictment of the state of economy driven sports. The story is, at times, over the top. However, it is also very very funny. Characters are in many ways caricatures, yet, they are quite a charming crew. There is little in the way of suspense or surprise except to see whether the Red Sox can break their curse of not winning a World Series. A problem with the book is the inability of the author to keep the plot concise. There is a bit too much rambling and repetition. However, SCREWBALL is a very well done debut and worthy of a reader's attention especially if a fan of baseball.
Rating: 
Summary: Feeding Frenzy
Review: The novel "Screwball" scores big points with me. The bases are loaded with coddled spoiled-sports whose sense of right and wrong is fuzzy as a Little Leaguer's shaved head. The writer's premise sets new standards for superhero badness: the Red Sox are winning...and just might keep winning, lifting the curse of the Bambino...if they can just downplay the fact that their phenom rookie pitcher Ron Kane also happens to be a serial killer. Think of the misbehaving high-profile athletes these days, and you'll find "Screwball" right on the mark. The characters are memorable, the dialogue zippy, and descriptions out of this world original and funny!!!! It's theater of the absurd in the tradition of Moliere. This book will warm-up family chats at the dinner table--the ethical & moral questions the writer raises make for excellent gnawing. Leave a copy around for your teenage kids'the book cover will lure them in for a closer look. I absolutely loved it'-a home run!
Rating:
Summary: An ace on the mound
Review: When you're reading a baseball tale, you want an author on the mound who knows how to curve in a good metaphor, slide in some humor and keep blazing across an entertaining plot line. With this debut, David Ferrell looks like he's positioned for a championship career, as evidenced by the loud laughter that I unleashed at the end of the fourth paragraph. Ferrell crafts every line and possesses a solid knowledge of the game, traits that combine in a line like "He lurched into a windup, the left leg kicking high overhead, as high and smooth as the great Juan Marichal, and he let go a curveball that hissed like a Texas rattler." The greatest pleasure of this book: just when you think Ferrell's going to fire off a fast one letter-high, he twists you into knots with a scroogie.
Rating:
Summary: Reverse the Curse?
Review: Who knew serial murder could be laugh out loud funny? Ferrell has captured the desperation of Red Sox Nation in this sharp satire. A phenomanal rookie pitcher, who can hit like hell and play a mean right field, might just be what will push the also-ran Red Sox into the Championship, but ritualized murder follows the team like a rabid fan. The ownership, the management, the cops, everyone seems to be in on keeping what might be the ugliest secret ever in baseball to allow the Sox to reach the World Series and maybe even win it for a change. Suspense, not mystery, is what this book is, but the red herrings were too easily tossed aside and potential red herrings fizzled out as well. Ferrell manages to keep things mixed up enough to be a set-up guy, though not a starter or closer. Still, it was an entertaining book that kept me turning the pages because, like in baseball, anything could happen, and frequently enough did.
Rating:
Summary: Reverse the Curse?
Review: Who knew serial murder could be laugh out loud funny? Ferrell has captured the desperation of Red Sox Nation in this sharp satire. A phenomanal rookie pitcher, who can hit like hell and play a mean right field, might just be what will push the also-ran Red Sox into the Championship, but ritualized murder follows the team like a rabid fan. The ownership, the management, the cops, everyone seems to be in on keeping what might be the ugliest secret ever in baseball to allow the Sox to reach the World Series and maybe even win it for a change. Suspense, not mystery, is what this book is, but the red herrings were too easily tossed aside and potential red herrings fizzled out as well. Ferrell manages to keep things mixed up enough to be a set-up guy, though not a starter or closer. Still, it was an entertaining book that kept me turning the pages because, like in baseball, anything could happen, and frequently enough did.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: Wow. I'm not even a baseball fan, but I was glued to this book. Very entertaining and unpredictable. The book came recommended to me and I thought "how can a book about baseball and murder be funny?" Well, Ferrell pulls it off. You'll laugh, be shocked, and feel like you're right there with the team. Ferrell raises moral questions such as how far we'll go when we want something bad enough. I found myself sympathizing with the team managers who have a very bad situation on their hands, but maybe not the best judgment. Good entertainment.
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