Double Play

About the Book

Baseball was all Andy Cantrell cared about growing up. So, when he reared identical twin daughters after their mother’s untimely death, he wanted them to be championship softball players. The girls looked and sounded the same, but that was all. He taught the patient sister how to pitch and the wild sister to play second base. He had them practice a most difficult play, the pitcher to second to first double play thousands and thousands of times with a neighbor boy playing first base. The play came up in a game leading to the national college championship. Make it and they would advance to the final game. The wild sister, through no fault of her own, made an error and the game was lost. She blamed herself for the loss and suffered the wrath of the patient sister.

Their father died from a weak heart after the game. The wild sister became a hermit and took over the family farm. Years later, the sisters reunited only to have the patient sister also die from a weak heart. The wild sister decided to secretly take her place, raise her children including two identical twin girls, coach and strive for retribution through softball. All through the years, the neighbor boy who had become a sheriff, was by her side. She knew he knew what she was doing but never blew the whistle.

The journey was never easy, and she told it all in her diary.

About the Author

After a successful, distinguished, and award-winning career as a California School District Superintendent and Nevada State Superintendent, Jack McLaughlin’s desire to use his creativity and write stories about mythical people and fabled stereotypes in the form of books and screenplays was energized by winning lm festivals and acclaim. Key to Jack’s stories and scenarios is the vast knowledge and experience with people acquired nationally at all levels, poor and rich, black and white, young and old. He is the oldest of a family of nine children. Also key was his participation as a high-level, multi-sport athlete and youth sports coach and enthusiast. With such a varied and extensive background, he has bridged the generational gaps and written scripts and stories of many genres and interests. Once a coach, always a coach.