PERFECT ONCE REMOVED
PHILLIP HOOSE
It is1956, and Hoose is the new kid in his Indiana town, a klutzy, nearsighted third-grader who wears trousers a bit too high. Then his parents deliver the news "on the order of a cure for polio": Don Larsen--a New York Yankee!--is his cousin once removed. The kid and the star trade letters, they meet, and Hoose gains courage and acceptance. When Larsen throws his iconic perfect game in the World Series that October, "even a few girls came over" to the boy's desk. Hoose reconnects with the player 50 years later, expecting to find a...