Happy Smith Goes to Brooklyn

Henry Joseph (Happy) Smith was one of just 20,753 people lucky and talented enough to have ever played Major League Baseball. In his case, it was a brief "cup of coffee" playing for the Brooklyn Superbas (later called the Dodgers) for just one season in 1910. Who was this wide-eyed youth from the Pacific Northwest, and what would he experience when given the opportunity to play baseball in America's largest urban metropolis? What was his life like in uniform and off the field?

While this book is based on Happy's actual abbreviated major league career, the story itself is pure historical fiction. We agonize with him during one critical at-bat in a late-season game against the World Champion Chicago Cubs, where he tries to score a much-needed insurance run. Over the course of the season, Happy comes face to face with the volatile politics and labor struggles going on around him, experiences Halley's Comet firsthand, and is awe-struck by the carnival atmosphere at America's largest amusement park in Coney Island.

We don't know where Happy's roller coaster ride is headed, but it's clear that his short time with the Brooklyn Superbas would change his life.