"There's baseball in France? I had no idea." That comment from Steve Ellis, former pitcher for the Chicago Cubs and a self-professed Francophile. It's the reaction of most people when they hear that baseball is actually being played here, a country better known for soccer, rugby and bike racing.

It was certainly our reaction when Petie discovered that there was a team near our home in Normandy and insisted Don try out. "Get serious," he said. "I'm sixty-four and haven't played since I was a kid." Don was seventeen, a brilliant high school pitcher being scouted by several major league clubs when he suffered an arm injury and saw his dreams of playing professionally go up in smoke.

That's part of what Almost Home is about. It's about shattered dreams but also about trying to play again after a 47-year break and competing against guys young enough to be his kids or grandkids.

It's also part of a larger story, one about a nation that was hailed as "the next great baseball country" before it was derailed by two world wars. That's how sporting goods magnate A. G. Spalding described it just before the First World War erupted. Spalding, the premier pitcher in the 1870s and a future Hall of Famer, was convinced baseball would become a major sport in France. His prediction almost came true. When French officers on training missions to the U.S. saw how much more accurately American soldiers threw grenades, they attributed it to baseball and ordered their own troops to learn the game. America also joined the effort and sent a ship, a freighter named the Kansan, loaded with baseball equipment to France. Unfortunately, it was sunk by a German submarine and all the equipment was lost. Lost as well was any chance that baseball in France would become as popular as Spalding and so many others predicted instead of the niche sport it is today.