Tom Mendicino introduced college-bound Charlie Beresford and high-school baseball hero Kevin "KC" Conroy in KC, At Bat. Now KC is trying to find his way--if he can just figure out where to look... KC has spent most of his twenty years working his way to the minor leagues. One drunken fight in a Spokane gay club, and he's thrown it all away. Convinced he can't return to his former coach's devoutly Christian household, KC thumbs his way to Seattle. If he's no longer the Mighty KC, destined to have his stats on a Topps trading card, who is he? The loser his mother always warned he would be? An imposter praying in vain for God to change him? Bad luck and a busted nose bring him to Eugene, Oregon, where he finds unlikely friends, work, and even a new purpose. But day by day he's gaining something else: courage to play from the heart, no matter what the result might be...

S. Gagliano & Son has been a barber shop fixture in South Philly for decades. Frankie and Michael Gagliano's Italian immigrant father—Luigi to his customers, Papa to his sons—presides over the store, enlisting his children as soon as they're big enough to wield a broom. On their mother's deathbed, eight-year-old Frankie swears that he and his little brother will always take care of each other, a vow he endeavors to keep through their father's violent outbursts and the string of wives who try to take their mother's place.After their father's death, Frankie takes over the shop, transforming it to fit in with the gentrifying neighborhood. Michael becomes a successful prosecutor with a rising political career, still close to his big brother despite the differences between them. Then comes an unthinkable, impulsive act that will force Michael to choose between risking his comfortable life and keeping a sacred oath—made before he knew how powerful a promise can...