Phil Bildner

Phil Bildner weaves the real history of Los Angeles Dodger and Oakland Athletic Glenn Burke—the first professional baseball player to come out as gay—into the story of a middle-school kid learning to be himself....

Griffith, Graham, and Ruby's father passed away in the war. And now they must join their mother and their father's wartime baseball team, The Travelin' Nine, on a tour of America to raise money....

As the Travelin' Nine head to Chicago, the team is filled with hope and optimism....

The year is 1899, and the Travelin' Nine are crisscrossing the good ol' U.S. of A., raising money to pay off the Payne family's big-league debt....