Billy

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Miss Billy" by Eleanor H. Porter. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

A programme text edition published to coincide with the world premiere at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, on 12 March 2009. Billy is in the squad and it's wonderful. He's down the wing and he's flying. He doesn't believe in much, but he believes in this ... in football. As the Blues and the Reds come out to play, it's D-Day for Billy ... Derby Day. But in the scramble for success, can Billy keep his head or will he fall foul of fame and fortune? Nick Leather, one of the North West's most prominent young playwrights, brings us a fast-paced coming of age story pulsing with all the excitement and physicality of Match Day.

In the early 1970s, the Oakland Athletics became only the second team in major-league baseball history to win three consecutive World Series championships. But as the decade came to a close, the A's were in free fall, having lost 108 games in 1979 while drawing just 307,000 fans. Free agency had decimated the A’s, and the team’s colorful owner, Charlie Finley, was looking for a buyer. First, though, he had to bring fans back to the Oakland Coliseum. Enter Billy Martin, the hometown boy from West Berkeley. In Billy Ball, sportswriter Dale Tafoya describes what, at the time, seemed like a match made in baseball heaven. The A’s needed a fiery leader to re-ignite interest in the team. Martin needed a job after his second stint as manager of the New York Yankees came to an abrupt end. Based largely on interviews with former players, team executives, and journalists, Billy Ball captures Martin’s homecoming to the Bay area in 1980, his immediate embrace by Oakland fans, and the A’s return to playoff baseball. Tafoya describes the reputation that had preceded Martin—one that he fully lived up to—as the brawling, hard-drinking baseball savant with a knack for turning bad teams around. In Oakland, his aggressive style of play came to be known as Billy Ball. A’s fans and the media loved it. But, in life and in baseball, all good things must come to an end. Tafoya chronicles Martin’s clash with the new A’s management and the siren song of the Yankees that lured the manager back to New York in 1983. Still, as the book makes clear, the magical turnaround of the A’s has never been forgotten in Oakland. Neither have Billy Martin and Billy Ball. During a time of economic uncertainty and waning baseball interest in Oakland, Billy Ball filled the stands, rejuvenated fans, and saved professional baseball in the city.

'Miss Billy', a charming romance by Eleanor H. Porter, tells the story of an orphan named Billy who seeks a family and writes to her father's old friend, William Henshaw. Upon her arrival, Billy surprises the Henshaw brothers by being an eighteen-year-old girl. She livens up their home and brings them all closer together. However, a misunderstanding leads to Billy's departure and her subsequent return three years later. The novel explores Billy's love life and how she helps the Henshaw brothers discover their passions. It is a delightful story featuring lively characters and engaging relationships.

"When Billy's father disappears and his mother withdraws deeper and deeper into herself in response, Billy maintains hope that his father's absence is not by choice - despite the rumors and taunts of his classmates. Twelve days before Christmas a magical Christmas tree with twelve magic ornaments sets the young man on a quest to find his dad and bring him home. Billy will stay with you forever."--Publisher's blog.