Warrior on the Mound

By: Jamie Steinberg

It’s 1939 in Wilmington, North Carolina and twelve-year-old Cato Jones is obsessed with baseball. He wants to be a famous pitcher and join the Negro League team the Kansas City Monarchs, just like his father “Daddy Mo” and his brother Isaac. He’s a darn good pitcher for the Pender County Rangers, but knows he still has a way to go on becoming a standout player. Cato lives with his grandparents Papa Vee and Gran, his Uncle “Rev” and sister Hope. His father died years ago on a back road under mysterious circumstances, something his grandparents think Cato is still too young to hear about. Warrior on the Mound explores the racial unrest in the Old South while lovingly honoring the Negro League baseball players that persevered these difficult times for the love of the game.

Today is a special day for the Jones family. It would have been Daddy Mo’s birthday, and every year Gran goes all out making a big meal and a chocolate cake. When this day rolls around Cato always does something to honor his father. This year he and the Rangers are headed to Poplar Field – a whites only baseball field – to give it a good look. The team runs the bases and plays a bit before taking off for home. Unfortunately, Mr. Luke, the owner of the field, comes to see Papa Vee and complains about the Rangers trespassing and tearing up the field. While Mr. Luke is an old friend of Daddy Mo (something that surprises Cato), he wants Cato and the team to come clean up the field and put it right. This creates racial tension around Sycamore Grove, but Mr. Luke has an idea in mind to settle things down – a baseball game between the white team of The Marlins and the black team The Rangers. What could go wrong?

Author Sandra W. Heade beautifully tells this tale in first-person, giving the reader full access to Cato’s mind and emotions. Your heart breaks knowing how crushed Cato was by losing his father, his desperate need to be just like the man he admires and his confusion over being kept in the dark about the circumstances behind that loss. Additionally, Heade doesn’t shy away from sharing true racial tensions of this time and how Black lives were always in peril, for no fault other than the color of their skin. She beautifully honors Black baseball players from the Negro League with characters who are named after real players. There is even one standout pitcher that makes a special appearance in the pages. Readers will certainly come to cherish Cato’s adventures, warm up to characters with blurred lines, revere the Negro League baseball players of yore and absolutely crave a slice of Gran’s chocolate cake.

Those that pick up a copy of Warrior on the Mound are certainly going to voraciously turn the pages. Follow Cato learning to perfect his windup, opening his heart to surprise alliances and realizing how much more he still has to grow. This is a definite must-read for baseball fans and young readers alike.