Even the most diehard 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 about the world, once and for all.
The bonus story in MORALITY is a riveting short about Chad, an aspiring writer who is teaching in a school until he lands a publishing contract. His wife Nora is working as a home nurse for a retired minister. Like most people these days, they are struggling financially. And then Nora is approached by her employer with a proposition that could make their dream of a home in Vermont a reality. But will it be worth the moral consequences?
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William Blakeley. Oh my God, you mean Blockade Billy. (BLOCKADE BILLY)
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(HarperCollins, 1 January 2001, hardback, 640 pages, bought from Amazon UK, Popsugar Reading Challenge, A Book Set 24 Years Before You Were Born)
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I've only read Blockade Billy once. This book also contains the short story Morality which I've also only read once. I'm not overly fond of either story to be honest which is why I haven't revisited them. I don't think either story is as good as King's other work. They're not bad stories by any stretch of the imagination but not brilliant either. He's written much better. I thought they were just okay. Blockade Billy is slightly better and I like the sister overtones. Morality is okay but I found the 'moral' of the story and the 'crime' Chad and Nora are asked to commit to make their dreams come true rather dull in the grand scheme of things. Not awful stories by any stretch but not great either.
3/5
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I'm currently reading through the lists of books with some connection to The Dark Tower from Stephen King's own website, https://stephenking.com/darktower/connections. According to this link the connections between The Dark Tower and Blockade Billy are:
- 19: The number nineteen is a magical number in the Dark Tower novels. In Blockade Billy, it is Billy's shirt number
