Rookie pitcher Roy Tucker is full of hope for his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers—and hope might be what the team needs mostRoy Tucker—a small-town kid from Tomkinsville, Connecticut—has quit his job at the drugstore and packed up for Dodgers training camp in Clearwater, Florida, hoping to make the team as a rookie pitcher. He expects the field to be competitive and realizes he might not pass muster, but after just one practice, he discovers just how difficult a goal he has set.But the Dodgers are an aging team, and owner Jack MacManus is getting tired of the smart remarks from sports reporters and the manager of the rival Giants, Bill Murphy. With a little coaching and encouragement from Dave Leonard, the oldest catcher in the big leagues, this kid from Tomkinsville might be just what the team needs.

When a German war-criminal-turned-soccer-star comes to play a match in post-war France, old wounds are reopenedConvicted in 1944 of war crimes committed in the occupied village of Nogent-Plage, former German Sergeant Hans von Kleinschrodt is sentenced to ten years' hard labor. By 1964, he has become the captain and goalie of the German champion soccer team—but he remains infamous throughout France, despite his insistence that he alone defied orders to slaughter the villagers when the Allied Forces arrived. When the German team must face the French champions in Rouen, the very city where Hans was sentenced twenty years earlier, the stage is set for a grudge match—and revenge.

Cecil "Highpockets" McDade is known for his ego, his ambition, and his batting average—but a freak accident may help him discover what's really importantA rookie right fielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cecil "Highpockets" McDade shows plenty of promise. But his high opinion of himself (and low opinion of the city) lands him in hot water when a sportswriter makes news out of the Dodger who hates Brooklyn, turning Highpockets into the most despised man on the team overnight.But Highpockets remains relentless in his pursuit of fame and fortune—until a car accident brings a boy named Dean Kennedy into his life. Dean doesn't care about the Dodgers, or baseball, or anything other than his stamp collection. Consumed by guilt over his part in the collision that may cost Dean his leg, Highpockets must try to turn his own life around—before it's too late.

When a sports rivalry nearly turns deadly, Ronald Perry finds himself caught between what he knows and what he knows is rightThe long-standing tension between the Academy and the High School often becomes heated, especially when the two schools face each other on the football field. But when Ronald Perry, the star of the Academy team, nearly kills Meyer Goldman, a boy playing for the High School, in a dangerously hard tackle, Ronny is horrified. He swears he'll never play football again.Back in school, Ronny is even more shocked by the attitude of his Academy friends and teammates, who tell him not to be so hard on himself—because Goldman is Jewish. Unable to ignore the remorse he feels, Ronny decides to transfer to the High School. But when his new classmates dismiss him as a snob, he realizes that he'll have to work hard to break down this old rivalry.

John Tunis vividly imagines the drama of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Allied forces from DunkerqueSergeant Edward Williams of the Second Battalion was among the first British troops to land in France, just across the English Channel from his family in Dover, after the declaration of war in September of 1939. Battles have been few and far between since then, in what the Germans have been calling der Sitzkrieg—the sitting war. In May 1940, under the leadership of their new prime minister, Winston Churchill, the British are hoping to stem the tide of Nazi invasion along their southern border. But now, flanked to the east and west by German troops and cut off from the Allies further south, Sergeant Williams and his battalion must retreat to Dunkerque in the north, and escape by sea is their only hope.

Two brothers called up from the minor leagues try to turn around the Brooklyn Dodgers' dismal prospectsIt's late in the season, and the Brooklyn Dodgers have been flagging, dropping through the ranks as the Pittsburgh Pirates take the league. When a scout brings Spike and Bob Russell up from the minor leagues, the "Keystone Kids" quickly prove their worth.With Spike at shortstop and Bob at second base, the future starts to look a little brighter—but Spike sees the slumping team begin to fall apart again the following year, as even his own brother picks on Klein, the new Jewish catcher. Exasperated and tired of being in last place, owner Jack MacManus unexpectedly promotes Spike to manager, hoping to shake his team of its losing habit.

The Brooklyn Dodgers finally have a shot at the pennant—if they can stay together as a teamIt's Spike Russell's second year in the majors with his brother, Bob, and the Brooklyn Dodgers are in the pennant race, thanks in part to rookie pitcher Bones Hathaway. Spike is finding it difficult to balance playing shortstop and managing the players, but he knows he's up for the challenge.But when the club secretary, Bill Hanson, starts criticizing Spike's managerial skills and implying that the young manager is running the team into the ground, the crew Spike had such high hopes for begins to fall apart. Spike will have to prove himself to his teammates to regain their trust and lead them to victory.

In only his second year in the major leagues, Roy Tucker is thrilled to be playing in a World Series—but with the Brooklyn Dodgers, victory is never certainThe Brooklyn Dodgers have finally made it to the World Series, after years of losing seasons and disappointments. Roy Tucker, the kid from Tomkinsville, is excited about the series, and also about the prospect of a little extra money to send home to his grandmother in Connecticut.The Cleveland Indians are now all that stands between the Dodgers and their first-ever championship. But this seven-game series could be the longest they've ever played, plagued by injuries, setbacks, and early losses. Will Tucker and his Brooklyn teammates finally have their moment of glory?

Roy Tucker left the Dodgers to become a war hero—and now he's fighting to get back onto the baseball diamondRoy Tucker was one of the best prospects the Dodgers had—first as a pitcher, then as an outfielder when he injured the elbow of his throwing arm. Then he went off to serve in World War II, where a plane crash over France left him with pain in his hips and back.The war is nearly over, and players are starting to return from the front to play ball again. If the Dodgers aim to have any chance at the pennant, the kid from Tomkinsville will have to fight his way back into the game once more.

Jack Cobb has lost everything—his wife, his son, his career—but a thoroughbred horse named Quicksilver may give him a new lease on lifeRecently widowed Baltimore stockbroker Jack Cobb is increasingly disheartened when his son, Stan, loses interest in pursuing his college degree in history. Stan prefers riding his thoroughbred horse, Quicksilver, and sees little point in academic work when he is about to be drafted into the army to fight in Vietnam.Barely a month into his first tour of duty, Stan is killed by a civilian in the street, and soon after that Jack's business begins to fail. Forced to sell the house, Jack stakes his last hope on Stan's beloved horse and enters Quicksilver into the prestigious Grand National in Aintree, England.