Baseball Great

Baseball Great is a 2009 novel for young adults by American author Tim Green. It follows 12-year-old Josh LeBlanc, the champion batter for his local baseball team, the Mount Olympus Titans, as he tries to win his city’s semi-pro championship tournament. Along the way, he is tempted to take steroids by the owner and coach of the Titans, Rocky Valentine. Blanc is ultimately forced to choose whether to succumb to the performance enhancing drug, colloquially known as “gym candy,” or try to win on his real merits. Baseball Great is concerned with the morality of drug abuse, especially as it concerns minors who have had little exposure to, or education about, the drug industry.

The novel begins by introducing LeBlanc and his friends, Jaden Neidermeyer and Benji. LeBlanc starts off playing on his school’s extracurricular baseball team, and Jaden, a reporter for their school’s paper, writes an optimistic article praising LeBlanc’s batting ability. Jaden predicts that he will help the team win the city’s inaugural U14 school championship. However, shortly after LeBlanc’s father gets a job working for the semi-pro Titans, he vets him to switch to his team. Jaden and the other fans at school are disappointed to lose LeBlanc but sympathetic of his desire to become a professional player.

The Titans coach permits LeBlanc to come to tryouts. Partly thanks to the expert training his dad has provided him for years, he makes the team. He has a hard time introducing himself to his teammates, who believe he is too young to play for the Titans. They subject him to mild hazing rituals and frequently poke fun at him. LeBlanc doesn’t let their harassment demoralize him, and shifts his full focus to the sport. Whenever he gets downtime, he reads to take his mind off of his teammates’ antics.



One day, Coach Valentine offers a sports drink he has concocted to the Titans players. Mr. LeBlanc, the team’s salesperson, tries to market the drink to other baseball teams and local stores. He tells LeBlanc to drink it twice per day, and raves about the effects it will have on his performance. Though it tastes and smells disgusting, and he is already the best batter, LeBlanc concedes. LeBlanc leads the team to win the following tournament, sealing his official acceptance into the Titans. In private, his teammates offer him a bottle of “gym candy,” claiming that it will boost his performance even further. They allege that Coach Valentine gave them the pills and authorized them to take them. LeBlanc is conflicted, knowing that declining the pills might cost him his spot on the team, and cost his dad his job. He consults with Jaden and Benji, who help him research the gym candy, which leads them to discover that it is a steroid.

Jaden sleuths after Coach Valentine to figure out if he truly is the source of the gym candy. He catches him in the act of dealing the drugs, and takes a picture with his phone. Coach Valentine finds out and goes after Jaden. LeBlanc rushes to get to Jaden before his coach does. Just as Coach Valentine finds Jaden at school, LeBlanc pulls the fire alarm to create a diversion. The police arrive, and Jaden gives them the phone as Valentine tries to flee. He runs to his car, but is unable to make a getaway: while he was going after Jaden, Benji let the air out of his tires. Valentine is arrested, and the Titans go on to win the Long Island baseball championship even without their coach or the gym candy.

The police investigation exonerates Mr. LeBlanc, proving that he knew nothing about the illegal steroid use. He starts his own semi-pro team and recruits his son to bat. LeBlanc is also vetted by Nike to join an elite training program, offering him sponsorship money and free gear. LeBlanc rests easy on his decision to reject performance enhancements and win using his own abilities and hard work. Baseball Great shows that some shortcuts to success are not all they are chalked up to be, and validates its protagonist’s instincts to persevere without sacrificing his moral compass.