I am excited to host Jami Deise, author of Keeping Score on my blog today! Jami and I share a love of baseball, although I am a loyal fan of the New York Yankees and she…is not 🙂

If you love baseball too, or even if you are just a betting woman (or man), read Jami’s post below for a chance to win an ecopy of Keeping Score!

Thanks for having me on your blog, Meredith! It’s very meta being hosted by the woman who wrote “Blogger Girl!”

It’s the post-season for Major League Baseball, the time when casual fans start paying closer attention and true fans become fanatics. Most baseball fans develop a love for the sport in childhood, either by playing the game themselves or through a parent who loved a specific team.

I was brought up to love football.

Baseball, not so much. Homeruns were kind of exciting but what usually happened was the batter would hit the ball to a fielder, the fielder would throw the ball to first, and the guy would be out. Or the ball would go high in the air, and the fielder would catch it, and the guy would be out.

Meanwhile, back on the gridiron… interception! Returned for a touchdown! Did you see that!!!

Tom Hanks famously said, “There’s no crying in baseball.” Well, sadly, there are no turnovers in baseball either.

While football – and basketball, and hockey, and any sport whose players spend most of their time running rather than standing in place – is about action, baseball is about drama. And believe me, there is nothing more dramatic than the 3-2 pitch, with 2 outs and bases loaded. That’s the kind of drama that can give a person a stomachache. Especially for the person whose child is the one on the mound or at the plate.

If you want to develop a deep appreciation for the sport, sign up your kid to play. Not only will it force you to learn the intricacies of the in-field fly rule and what “tagging up” means, you’ll become intimately acquainted with the strange attraction that blind men seem to have to the occupation of baseball umpire.

As baseball began taking up more and more of my son’s life – and mine, by extension – I found myself enjoying professional baseball more than ever. Not because I’d suddenly developed a longer attention span or even that I could tell the difference between a curve ball and a change-up (usually.) No, the reason why I suddenly found those games enjoyable was because that man who just struck out? That guy who just walked the bases loaded? I did not give birth to him!!!

This post-season, I’ll be rooting for my adoptive hometown team, the Tampa Bay Rays, for as long as they’re in it. (They may be out by October 3^rd.) I also like the Indians, the Red Sox, and the Dodgers. Oh, and Meredith, I’m so sorry the Yankees are watching from their living room couches this October. I am just crying for your team. Yeah, right. 😉  For the baseball fans out there, I’m offering a free Kindle or Nook copy of my mother-son baseball book, “Keeping Score,” to everyone who correctly predicts which two teams will make it to the World Series this year. Just post your predictions in the comments section below by October 15^th. The Series starts October 23^rd, so we might not know the winners until October 22. Good luck and go Rays!

About Keeping Score….

When her son Sam asks to try out for a travel baseball team, divorced mom Shannon Stevens thinks it’ll be a fun and active way to spend the summer. Boy, is she wrong! From the very first practice, Shannon and Sam get sucked into a mad world of rigged try-outs, professional coaches, and personal hitting instructors. But it’s the crazy, competitive parents who really make Shannon’s life miserable. Their sons are all the second coming of Babe Ruth, and Sam isn’t fit to fetch their foul balls. Even worse, Shannon’s best friend Jennifer catches the baseball fever. She schemes behind the scenes to get her son Matthew on the town’s best baseball team, the Saints. As for Sam? Sorry, there’s no room for him! Sam winds up on the worst team in town, and every week they find new and humiliating ways to lose to the Saints.

And the action off the field is just as hot. Shannon finds herself falling for the Saints’ coach, Kevin. But how can she date a man who didn’t think her son was good enough for his team … especially when the whole baseball world is gossiping about them? Even Shannon’s ex-husband David gets pulled into the mess when a randy baseball mom goes after him. As Sam works to make friends, win games and become a better baseball player, Shannon struggles not to become one of those crazy baseball parents herself.  In this world, it’s not about whether you win, lose, or how you play the game… it’s all about KEEPING SCORE.

About Jami …

A lifelong resident of Maryland, Jami Deise recently moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, along with her husband Tom, son Alex, and dog Lady. A baseball mom for over 10 years, “Keeping Score” is her first novel. Jami is an associate reviewer at www.chicklitcentral.com and a generalist reader for an NYC-based literary agency. Along with women’s fiction, she loves all things horror and watches too much TV.

Links: Keeping Score on Amazon (Kindle/paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E6GHQYM

Keeping Score for Nook/iPad: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/340759

Blog: www.JamiDeise.blogspot.com

Twitter: @JamiDeise

Facebook: www.facebook.com/JamiDeiseauthor

DON’T FORGET TO COMMENT WITH YOUR WORLD SERIES PREDICTIONS FOR  A CHANCE TO WIN! IF YOU DON’T WIN, NO WORRIES, KEEPING SCORE WILL BE ON SALE FOR 99 CENTS ON AMAZON NEXT WEEK!!