Based on the life of its author with a bit of poetic license, “A Day for Heroes” tells the story of a boy, Ray, growing up in the 1950s and transformed from a holy horror kid to an incredible baseball player, and most importantly, a story of fathers and sons coming together to play a game of baseball like no other. These parents, most of them World War II veterans, believed that the children, who had never lost a game, had it easy because of them, and now it was time to teach them a lesson.
The first few chapters of the novel detail Ray’s comic misadventures growing up and the rivalry that developed between him and his father as a result of the constant trouble he caused. Ray always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, leading to his perhaps justified paranoia that his parents, grandparents, and his teachers were out to get him. But after all, she set the house on fire, burned her grandfather’s player piano, smashed the seats in the new car, created abstract art out of a kindergarten classmate, and had to make a deal with the school principal to keep her mouth shut in choir—that’s how bad her singing was. Ray’s grandfather threatens to get back at him for destroying the player piano, but it’s Ray’s father who carries it out in a way that will keep the reader cringing—with laughs, of course.
Then Ray’s life suddenly changes when he reaches fifth grade and meets Mrs. Harrison, a gym teacher so old she must have been teaching since Old Testament times. Perhaps her old age has made Mrs. Harrison wise because she is the first person to see Ray’s potential. She makes him a teacher’s assistant, and in time, they form a baseball team outside of class. Before long, Ray is part of an unstoppable youth baseball team, and when he and his classmates turn sixteen, they are playing in the Detroit baseball league against boys’ teams. The other teams find them ridiculous, and no one wants to play with them at first, but the laugh doesn’t last long.
By the time they graduate from high school, Ray’s team has never lost a game. But then his parents come over to play one last game on a Sunday afternoon in 1965. Ray and his teammates are shocked, but up for the challenge. After all, his parents are all on the wrong side of forty. But they have underestimated these men, most of whom are World War II veterans and play baseball like they want to win another war.
The book’s title, “A Day for Heroes,” refers to that great game between fathers and sons, World War II veterans, and the next generation. The final showdown is hilarious, moving, will make readers clap, and has the same effect as a great feel-good movie. Every page of the book is filled with laughter, but underneath those laughs is a deep respect for the veterans who saved the world.
Danescu makes sure that all the characters on both teams are fully realized. For example, Deacon, the aptly named second baseman on Ray’s team, is described as having “a slow, steady gait, almost biblical in nature, while surrounded by an aura of poise and composure. He had the self-assurance of a spiritualist. When he appeared in the game, it was as if he were walking into a revival tent to fulfill dreams and hopes.” And then there’s Jack, whose parents are German immigrants. Jack grows so big that his muscles bulge out everywhere until his teammates are convinced that he is the result of a secret lab experiment in Germany during the war. Jack is such an incredible ballplayer that “the other team walked off the field, demanding to see a birth certificate and other identification proving Jack was human. Jack never spoke during these investigations; we had another player represent him. We knew his accent would spark accusations about test tubes, German labs and artificial organs.”
As for the fathers of WWII, here are descriptions of two of them:
“Mr. Grant brought home a noticeable limp from the war and currently worked as a foreman on an assembly line in Detroit. With every step he took, there were doubts. We didn’t think he could play baseball, but Mr. Grant showed up to play because he didn’t know what limitations we were talking about.”
“For almost two years, he had faced death every night on patrols around Japanese-controlled islands. Then Mr. Danson came home with nerves of steel and eyes so cold and sharp he could carve a turkey with them… It was scary to have someone with that record. And if he said we still had things to learn, who was going to argue with him?”
Danescu, despite a few jokes, is reverent towards these men, asking in the prelude chapter before the big game:
“Where do you find heroes? You find them inside innocent and unsuspecting people who find themselves in dangerous or desperate situations. They react in ways that show how personal identity and importance become secondary to another cause or purpose. Their acts of courage and bravery can be spontaneous or last for years.”
To me, to describe the great game between these fathers and sons would take all the fun out of the reader, and my descriptions could not do justice to the book’s humor, comical incidents, and general toughness of these players. “A Day for Heroes” is a triumph in many ways, from nostalgia to heroism and from humor to deep emotion. Ryan Danescu can write a tear-jerking paragraph and end it with a sentence of comic relief like few other authors can. After burning down houses, destroying car interiors, and becoming a great baseball player, he may have finally found his calling in writing this moving story of two generations at war on the baseball diamond. This book is destined for a home run.
