Books with author John R. Tunis

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?

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.

When a sports rivalry nearly turns deadly, Ronald Perry finds himself caught between what he knows and what he knows is right The 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.

Jack Cobb has lost everything—his wife, his son, his career—but a thoroughbred horse named Quicksilver may give him a new lease on life Recently 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.