Heroes Are Hard to Find
A baseball player with a Hall of Fame career is haunted by a single athletic failure, but time and circumstance gives him a chance to re-live and possibly change his attitude and the fateful memories of his past.
Heroes Are Hard to FindMike Looney
Stormy Weathers, a crusty and fierce but over-the-hill ball player, confesses to the clubhouse manager his fear of life without baseball after his farewell game at Yankee Stadium. Despite his hall-of-fame kind of career, he admits to one haunting athletic failure that cost his high school team the state championship game with a weak slide at home plate. Shortly thereafter, Stormy, filled with self-pity and despair, meets a peculiar man of unusual powers named Mac Swindell, who admits his affinity for people like Stormy who take an unfair advantage any time possible. With only the condition that Stormy conduct himself as he has in the past, Mac provides him with a strong eighteen-year-old body. Still armed with the savy of a veteran big-leaguer and the new identity of Cal Lucas, Stormy returns to the home of his youth, Dallas, Texas.
With Mac’s assistance, he rents an apartment next door to his mother, who, for unknown reasons, had abandoned him to an orphanage as a small time. Life begins anew for Stormy Weathers, now a senior and in love with a beautiful girl, who happens to be his coach’s daughter. He has a new name, Cal Lucas, and the talent to lead his Woodrow Wilson High School baseball team to the state tournament.
But the good life becomes as stormy as his name. He teaches his teammates every illegal trick of the game he knows, all of them defying the moral teachings of his coach. His mother confesses that it was Mac Swindell who duped her into giving up her son long ago, giving Mac the chance to lead Stormy into a lifetime service of the “unfair advantage.” If she ever tells anyone, she will die. The FBI, searching for the missing Stormy Weathers begin to suspiciously close in on Cal Lucas, who tells Mac that he will no longer will he use an unfair advantage to win at any cost. He is willing to trade his youth for his mother’s life.
But will he have time to lead Woodrow Wilson to an impossible victory in the state championship before his youth begins to fade away? What will happen to the love of his life once he suddenly becomes so much older? What kind of life does exist beyond baseball? He has done the right thing, he knows, but the personal cost is huge. It is only then that Stormy fully understands why heroes are so hard to find.
Heroes Are Hard to Find is a touching story – filled with grit, humor, and drama – that impacts all ages. The ultimate lesson it teaches will remain with you for the rest of your life.
Download the opening text from: Heroes Are Hard to Find
Reviews of Heroes Are Hard to Find
“I read Heroes Are Hard To Find in two days. Couldn’t put it down. What a great story. Well told.”
Kevin Sullivan, Former Assistant Secretary of Education to President George Bush“My dear friend, Mike Looney, captures the joy of life, art and sport in his classic novel, Heroes Are Hard To Find. I was thrilled when he commissioned me to create his cover.”
Charlie Waters, former Dallas Cowboy great“Looney’s writing is as colorful as his moral is true blue.”
Kevin Sherrington, Dallas Morning News“One of the best reads I’ve had in years! Looney knows baseball and certainly knows how to spin a great tale! Loved it!”
Steve Binder, Emmy Award winning Hollywood producer and director“I think it’s one of the best baseball books I’ve ever encountered. It’s just terrific.”
Greg Williams, radio personality on 105.3, The Fan“I have written a few things but felt the unflattering pangs of writer’s jealousy when I read Looney’s Heroes Are Hard To Find.”
Michael Rabon, lead singer and co-writer of sixties group, the Five Americans, member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame
Sign up for a free download of The Lazarus Deception, updates and more!
