Baseball novelist John H. Ritter (born 1951) grew up playing "one-on-one" hardball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 with his brothers in the rural hills of eastern San Diego County along the Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 border. His father was a sports writer in Ashtabula, Ohio

Ashtabula, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 20,962 people, 8,435 households, and 5,423 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,775.9 people per square mile . There were 9,151 housing units at an average density of 1,211.8 per square mile...

, who moved the family out west to become Sports Editor for The San Diego Union. John's mother died of breast cancer when he was only four, but he remembers that she sang to her four children constantly, even making up a song for each of them that fit their personalities.

During high school, John was inspired by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

, the songwriter, and spent time memorizing The Bob Dylan Songbook, as well as writing his own songs. After high school, he attended the University of California at San Diego, where he played baseball and met his wife, Cheryl.

For the next 25 years, John became a custom painting contractor, but he always set time aside to write. Then in 1994, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators is a nonprofit, 5013 organization that acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people.The...

 honored him with the Judy Blume Award and a cash grant. Three years later, he retired from painting, and in 1999 his first novel, Choosing Up Sides (Penguin Putnam), won the International Reading Association

International Reading Association

The International Reading Association is an international professional organization that was created in 1956 to improve reading instruction, facilitate dialogue about research on reading, and encourage the habit of reading....

's Children's Book Award.

A full-time writer of Blackfoot Indian, German, and Irish descent, John and his wife now live on the Hawaiian island of Kauai

Kauai

Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...

.

Career

He has five books: The Boy Who Saved Baseball (2003), Under the Baseball Moon (2006), Choosing Up Sides (1998), Over the Wall (2000), and his newest book (a prequel to The Boy Who Saved Baseball), The Desperado Who Stole Baseball (2009).

Baseball Career during College

John Ritter played baseball at the University of California, San Diego

University of California, San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...

.

External links

• John H. Ritter's official website (http://www.JohnHRitter.com)