On "We Were Champions" by April Wilder (8123 words) ***

Baseball and pigs. Those are two of the central components of this story. Interesting fiction often comes from the juxtaposition of things that seem to have nothing to do with one another--as an author, it's fun to find the connection, and as a reader, how the author finds that connection is fun to read. In this piece, it's an all-girl baseball team and a coach who takes advantage of his squad. It's a pig years later, roasted on a spit, among people who know nothing about roasting such things (just how does one connect the pig to the pole?). It's Sammy Sosa and why we sympathize with him, even though he's a cheater--for that matter, why these girls might sympathize with a coach who's such a rascal. Read the story here at Zoetrope.