For many American men, baseball is the game of boyhood. Memories of days spent at the park, fast friendships with teammates, and the culture of competition are the essential fabric that give so many of these childhood memories their texture. But there comes a day for everyone when the game catches up with them, and they need to call it quits.InShort Relief, Ben Shahon (A COLLECTION FOR NO ONE TO READ) asks the question of what happens when men are not yet ready to give up that boys' game, the national pastime. In nine stories (including ones collected fromFree Library of the Internet VoidandFlash Boulevard), he traces the stories of a Minor League pitcher holding onto his last shed of hope for promotion to The Show, little leaguers' formative experiences, and a host of men and boys in between.Ben Shahon is the author of one previous chapbook,A Collection for No One to Read. His work has appeared in journals such asGhost Parachute,BULL, andFlash Boulevard, and he serves as the founding EIC ofJAKE. Ben lives and writes on the border of Los Angeles and Orange Counties in California, where he bemoans the Angels' decade-plus-long playoff drought.
