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    Blockade Billy
    Blockade Billy
    Blockade Billy
    Audiobook2 hours

    Blockade Billy

    Written by Stephen King

    Narrated by Craig Wasson and Mare Winningham

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From New York Times bestselling author Stephen King comes the haunting story of Blockade Billy, the greatest Major League baseball player to be erased from the game.

    Even the most die-hard baseball fans don’t know the true story of William “Blockade Billy” Blakely. He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first--and only--player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game’s history.

    Every effort was made to erase any evidence that William Blakely played professional baseball, and with good reason. Blockade Billy had a secret darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today. His secret was much, much worse... and only Stephen King, the most gifted storyteller of our age, can reveal the truth to the world, once and for all.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMay 25, 2010
    ISBN9781442336599
    Blockade Billy
    Author

    Stephen King

    Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

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    Reviews for Blockade Billy

    3.5/5

    651 ratings69 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Very quick read, read it in less than an hour. Never read anything by stephen king until this. I dont get sports at all so most of the lingo was lost on my but there was an interesting twist in the end.
    • 5/5
      ’ve never Thought of Stephen King is being particularly romantic but this book is a sentimental as it comes…albeit about baseball.

      I love these novellas because they celebrate the storytelling ability of Stephen King without the 21 hour price tag it takes to listen to them (yes, I prefer Audiobooks).

      Here’s some advice for those who are longing for another Carrie or the shining, I don’t read these books. They’re not for you. I’ve read all of his early works and I adore them but as I’ve matured, I wanted something different which is exactly what these novellas in a have delivered for me and apparently for the author.

      Blockade Billie is a genuinely great story about a baseball in the early days of the game. The storytelling technique was wonderfully done and it even includes a signature Stephen King twist.
    • 5/5
      Very good book. Took me in a direction I was not expecting.
    • 5/5
      Opening Day is right around the corner and I would love to see Blockade Billy playing for the Twins ...
    • 3/5
      As someone who knows nothing about baseball, I struggled to understand what exactly what was going on with the sporty bits. I did enjoy having the old man as the narrator recounting the story as the language seemed to be natural and flowed well.
    • 3/5
      Two short novellas from King, both of which explore the nature of identity and its ties to morality. Blockade Billy is an interesting read, told from a 3rd person narrative as though the person was being interviewed by the author, it recounts the legend of a catcher in the major leagues and his short claim to fame. But King throws a curve (pun intended) and leaves the reader stunned with the sudden change up. In "Morality", the second story, the question is not what would you do for money, but can you live with yoruself after you do it. It is an interesting question and the answers are a bit surprising as this little tale unfolds. A pretty good read.
    • 3/5
      Stephen King has taken the short amount of time, and penned down this short story about a catcher back in the earlier years of baseball. With the usual twist King throws in his stories, the 'too good to be true' guy has a side of him that some people sensed, but never thought could be. Was sort enough would be a great read while waiting at the doctor's office.
    • 3/5
      Don't usually read Stephen King... the baseball aspect of it caught my eye... too bad the whole story was given away on a website when I was trying to find out if this story had any truth to it... it still was a good story.

      The second story included in the book was not as entertaining... I'm still shaking my head as to why I even read it!
    • 3/5
      Seems more like something Stephen King might have written on his lunch hour. Thankfully the library had a copy, since 25.00 for 112 pages of a 3/4 size book is outrageous. Is it written good: of course, it's Stephen King. Is it worth reading: not really, more for King completists than anyone else.
    • 3/5
      ehhh...I am a huge fan of Stephen King, but this was not one of my favorites. However, it was interesting and did keep me reading. Baseball is not an interest of mine, so it was just okay for me.
    • 2/5
      I don't like when King puts himself in the story because it kind of breaks the fourth wall. And while I'm not a sports fan, I've found I enjoy quite a few sports stories, but this one didn't seem to move well and it felt like a sideline in a better story. I feel like I've given god a bad review, and I'm about to be struck by lightening, so I'll leave it at that.
    • 3/5
      Not my favorite Stephen King short story collection, but still masterfully written. Unlike the title suggests there is more than one story included in this book. "Blockade Billy," the gruesome and surprising baseball story is up first, followed by "Morality" which is a chilling tale about how far people will go for money. Both were well written, but neither appealed to me. "Blockade Billy" is definitely geared for the sports fanatic, it contains a lot of heavy duty baseball writing and terminology while "Morality," focuses on money, relationships, and you guessed it... morality. A quick read with good suspenseful build up and witty dialogue.
    • 2/5
      very disappointing. Concept was interesting, but writing style was sloppy. Not the typical Stephen King polish
    • 4/5
      Quick little novella, listened to it in the car on the way to work over a couple of days. Denise had read this, and wanted me to listen to it and let her know if the baseball stuff was all right in it. You can tell that King is a real baseball fan.
    • 5/5
      Opening Day is right around the corner and I would love to see Blockade Billy playing for the Twins ...
    • 3/5
      This is a fairly short story with an interesting twist. I found the format of an interview to be creative. The story is well written but has little meaning. The book would best appeal to baseball or sports fans. I mildly recommend this book.
    • 3/5
      Blockade Billy is the story of "the greatest Major League baseball player to be erased from the game". More specifically, Stephen King gives us the story of William "Bill" Blakely", a catcher for the New Jersey Titans who is called up from a farm team due to unfortunate circumstances for the team. Blockade Billy brings life and hope to the team, but he harbors a terrible secret "darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today".

      Overall, Blockade Billy is an intriguing story of what happened to cause the greatest baseball player in MLB history to be completely stricken from the record books and, thus, his team also largely forgotten. King, not simply as the author of this novella, but as a character in the book comes to interview the former third base coach of the New Jersey Titans in his retirement home so that he can find out the fully story of William Blakely, Blockade Billy.

      What I found interesting and effective about this story is that it is written, especially at the beginning, as if King really was interviewing this third base coach. So, the very beginning of the book reads a bit like a "front porch story" that your elder relatives would tell with all these little asides about what life was like back in 1957 and how baseball was different. Thus, the story overall has this sort of charming story tone to it.

      Because the novella is presented as King (the character/author) interviewing this former third base coach, the language is a bit salty at times and peppered with a couple of "f***'s" that some parents might not feel as appropriate for a younger reader. I was actually surprised that I picked this book up not in the young adult section of a bookstore but in the intermediate readers section given the language in the book.

      Blockade Billy is also not a typical edge-of-your-seat page turner that we have come to expect of King. While Billy's secret is disturbing, it's disturbing in the sense that it something that we would likely hear on the news, so it could very well be a real news story or history of this incredible baseball player. Despite it not being an edge-of-your-seat page turner, the book is enjoyable and I did read the entire book in one sitting; after ally, it's only just over 130 pages in length.

      Billed as a novella, Blockade Billy seems awfully short for this designation; in fact, the story only comprises 80 of the 132 pages of the hardcover Scribner edition of the book. The remaining 52 pages are comprised of another short story "Morality", which I almost enjoyed more than Blockade Billy. The premise of "Morality" is that a young married woman who works as an in-home healthcare nurse for a retired Reverend has been propositioned by the Reverend to commit a sin because he wants the experience of truly sinning at least once in his life. Will she accept his offer of a good deal of money to perform and record this sin for the Reverend or won't she? If she does, what are the consequences?

      The nature of some aspects of this story, "Morality" might be considered inappropriate for younger readers.
    • 4/5
      Stephen King and baseball...what a combination in this short novella. There were few characters and I really liked the Granny character. Billy's character was a little strange. The buildup in the story itself justifies the end, which is not scarey, but just is.
    • 5/5
      King does it again with true to life characters and a take that builds slowly in suspense. Through the use of his favorite sport, baseball, and his dark side he leads us on a journey through a season of America's favorite past time ewith a twist. Even as the story ends I want to jump to my feet shouting Blockade!
    • 3/5
      The first British edition and has a second story, Morality, so this is the edition to go for, unless you want a first edition for its own sake.Everything I know about baseball I know from Naked Gun, so large parts are unintelligible and really only function for me as delaying tactics for the big reveal, which isn't really that big. Not a bad story though. Enjoyable. Same for Morality. No great shakes, but fun.
    • 2/5
      I picked up this very small book for something to read on my way to a deer stand. It contains two short stories, and when I say short, I mean seriously short. The book consists of 132 pages, but they are small pages with large type and liberal spacing. Suffice it to say that I had finished the entire book, with numerous breaks to scope the surrounding country, and found myself with plenty of time on my hands before dark.The stories themselves are moderately amusing and entertaining, but so short that they are over before you can get into them. Stories of this length should be printed in a magazine or compiled in a collection containing about a dozen different stories. To package two stories of such length into a book is nothing but a money grab.
    • 4/5
      This book was actually pretty good, but I'm not very familiar with baseball and its rules, so I felt like I did not enjoy the book as much as I could have. Not only that, the story, as many of King's short stories, had the potential to be something much bigger, more or less in the Firestarter style. Billy was such a cool and deep character, I think he deserved a story better than just a coach's flashback.
      As for the extra story, I found it of the right size. It was a good one, but definitely not as captivating as the main one.
    • 3/5
      Baseball is a sport that I have a hard time supporting. A few years ago (approx. 8 to be exact) I had seen a live game between the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, it's a totally different animal live. It comes across as lively and exciting. However, I cannot sit down and watch it on television - just doesn't do it for me.

      That being said, I seem to enjoy fiction about the sport. I'm a big fan (and quite possibly one of the only ones) of 2005's Fever Pitch as well as Rookie of the Year and the Angels in the Outfield movies from my youth. Actually, when I was a youngster going through the sixth grade, we had bi-weekly creative writing assignments and I would always write short stories about baseball or hockey; sports in general really. I can't remember if they were ever any good - truth be told; they were probably terrible - but I loved writing them.

      Anyway, this brings me to the subject of this review. I've been on a real Stephen King kick lately. I've read 4 of his books so far this year (The Dark Tower 1 and 2, Under The Dome, ..On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft) and have just finished my 5th, Blockade Billy.

      Clocking in at a dismal 81 pages, Blockade Billy certainly doesn't overstay its welcome. King lets the story take the tone of a sit down interview; a casual conversation with someone knowledgeable of the sport. He builds the tension well over the short amount of time he's given himself - the reader is slowly given reason to suspect that Billy might not "be all there".

      King lets his love of baseball shine through here, you believe that this is an era of the game that he misses fondly. He seems to take subtle digs at the state of the sport today; taking the opposition to "big money contracts" and the state of baseball's business aspect. Also, King throws in a ton of old baseball lingo but I never really felt lost in the conversation. It may have something to do with the fact that I know just enough about the game to get by - I have no idea how this will translate into the average Joe.

      When I had finished, I sort of thought that maybe it had ended just a little too soon (I'm slowly becoming a fan of longer, more detailed fiction). After having a couple of days to sit on it, I think the amount of story is just perfect. This being the first short story I've read from him; it has me excited for this fall's "Full Dark; No Stars" short story collection. I'll be picking that up for sure.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to give this 4 stars, but it needed to be longer and more fleshed-out, in my opinion. As it is, it's a good story, but that's about it. Some very nice touches, though.
      Note: I did not get the second story, "Morality," with my edition, so I'm not reviewing it.
    • 3/5
      Read this a week after the Super Bowl; a few weeks after the Patriots lost the AFC Championship game. I am ready for Pitchers/Catchers to arrive at spring training, in what, a couple weeks?! The first three quarters of the book was good stuff. Not crazy about the odd conclusion/ending, but overall, a good read.
    • 3/5
      Great narrative flow as expected from King, but as I know next to nothing about the technicalities of baseball I really couldn't connect.
    • 3/5
      Halloween 2013#2The second book this Halloween Season happens to be a novella by [[Stephen King]], whose another work, [Doctor Sleep] in on my list for this Halloween.This baseball story is based in the 50s and focusses on the magnificent, but short career of the Catcher, Billy. Sounds pretty routine, right? Well, there is quite a bit of build up to the story, the details, always the details, closet skeletons, and some darkness, but it is a summer breeze compared to a typical [[King]] work. I know this is not much of a review, but then, this was not much of a book, neither in quantity, nor in content.3/5
    • 3/5
      Stephen King struck the right note, that is for sure. You can tell King is a baseball fan from reading this. The atmosphere was right and the build up was perfect. However, I was let down by the ending. I was hoping for something more, something more terrifying, more awful. It just felt like it was building up to something like that. The 2nd story that was included with Blockade Billy was good as well but not very memorable.
    • 5/5
      I wish I liked horror because I would read everything Stephen King has ever written because he is brilliant. This was a short story but it felt like a book five times longer - King added in so much detail, character and life that it felt that alive. Great book.

      I think it does help to enjoy the book if you are a baseball fan but not a necessity.

      Highly recommended!
    • 2/5
      Minor league King.