Contemporary reporter Sam Fowler, stuck in a dull job and a failing marriage, abruptly finds himself transported back to the summer of 1869. After a wrenching period of adjustment, he comes to feel rejuvenated by his involvement with the nation's first pro baseball players. He also finds his senses quickening and tastes changing as he faces life-threatening 19th-century challenges on and off the baseball diamond. Through his attachments to the ballplayers and the lovely Caitlin O'Neill, he might just regain the sense of family he desperately needs. Darryl Brock masterfully evokes post-Civil War America's smoky, turbulent cities, the new transcontinental railroad that takes passengers over prairies and mountains to California, the dance halls and parlor houses, the financial booms and busts, and historical luminaries like Mark Twain and Jesse James. Equally appealing to sports fans and anyone who likes a good read, If I Never Get Back well deserves the Cleveland Plain Dealer's...

In this sequel to the best-selling If I Never Get Back, Sam Fowler manages to break into the past once again--but this time it's 1875. Gripped by an economic depression, America is a darker place. Again Sam falls in with ballplayers, but spins off on his own seeking the whereabouts of Caitlin, the woman he loves. His knight-like, hazardous quest forces him to ride the rails with tramps, deal with starving miners and the desperate Molly Maguires, work in a Saratoga casino, and venture into the Nebraska prairies. In the end, Sam will have to head into the Black Hills accompanied by Cait, a former slave, and a Sioux guide to face the ultimate reckoning of his life. Like its predecessor, Two in the Field combines authentic research (including accurate details of early baseball), a narrative filled with twists and turns, and memorable characters in a white-knuckle ride through a dramatic period of American history.From the Trade Paperback edition.