Minneapolis, MN, January 8, 2018 ― In the fictional village of Cottage Park, Iowa, time is best measured not by the hands of a clock but by the innings in a baseball game. In this quiet, northwestern Iowa community where businesses are shuttered and economic stability is scarce, two institutions flourish: the Holy Trinity Church – as spectacular as any Roman cathedral – and the local, dusty baseball diamond.

Set within a single baseball season in 1974, Tommy Murray's debut novel, Fathers, Sons, and the Holy Ghosts of Baseball, follows 14-year-old T.J., along with a band of misbehaving teens and three cantankerous old coaches, as the high school baseball team makes a concerted push for the championship – a summit never yet reached by the team from Holy Trinity High School.

For the coaches, the elusive championship looms large as they enter their final baseball season before retirement. For the players, the road to the finals is a confirmation by fire – a rite of passage they must navigate before facing the realities of adulthood.

Along this entertaining, coming-of-age journey, young and old alike ultimately learn that you must sacrifice before you can gain and sometimes lose before you can win.

Author Tommy Murray is a retired teacher from the Minneapolis Public Schools. He is also the author of the forthcoming novel, The Empty Set. Murray is married to Mary Ann, and they reside in Shoreview, Minnesota. In Fathers, Sons, and the Holy Ghosts of Baseball, Murray pays homage to his uncle, who led his high school team to its first state championship back in 1943. His uncle went on to enlist in the army and lost his life when his tank unit was ambushed in the Philippines in 1945.

In Murray's world, where his father, uncles and grandfathers shared their legacies of devotion to church, patriotism and baseball, baseball is life and death. It's much more than a sport. Baseball is a religion.