David Belisle: 12 books

Big Ed Delahanty was a feared slugger in baseball’s deadball era of the early 20th century. He was the only player to ever win the batting titles in both leagues. He was the only player to hit four home runs in one game and four doubles in another. He hit over .400 three times, his batting average...

It's 2020. America has gone skinny. It's a crime to be obese. Mississippi Governor Billy Bob Bishop and his state are playing catch-up, as the last state to tighten its citizens' belts. Bishop takes the media on a tour of the Grimes Ketchup plant … where we see a mysterious worker...

The Galvanized Anew Party (GAP) has a problem. They're trying to gain in the polls, but their budget is on par with Prime Minister Jean-Claude Krustachien's yearly supply of monogrammed golf balls. The 100th All-Mart store in Canada is opening in Orleans and Krustachien will be there along...

Gilbert Beaufromage, a compulsive giver, gives his wife, Suzanne, a subway token as a 6-week anniversary gift. It upsets her however, as her uncle died on the subway.He tries to make good with a gift of "da Bomb" perfume but it only causes her face to swell up. Her cries are overheard by next-door...

Truth: In the decade from 2004 to 2013, the number of states recognizing same-sex marriages grew from 4 to 21. … Fiction: What if these couples had more political power? A LOT more power … so much so that 12 states would join alternative lifestyle forces to become the gay male republic of Mariposa....

Hayward Templeton is a student psychiatrist at Iowa University who gets dragged into playing in a co-ed baseball game. Elected as the team's pitcher, he bones up on the internet the night before and learns how to throw a screwball. His quirky delivery is a success and his team wins. During the...

Fielding Schmelling is a rookie soul taker for the Houston Astros. That is, he recruits the dearly departed for the Astros’ after-life fan base. The regular season is purgatory … while a World Series win means entrance to heaven for the team’s faithful. God needed a more stream-lined, purification...

Incredible as it may seem, the following screwball epic is true.George Edward "Rube" Waddell was a Pennsylvania farm boy born in 1876 who loved to fish, play baseball and chase fire trucks. Rube's catcher with the Philadelphia Athletics, Ossee "Schrek" Schreckengost narrates the astonishing...

At 65, Kosma Stankowicz has found his niche as a pizza delivery expert. His background in Polish philosophy serves him well when dealing with the daily travails at Lead Pipe Joe’s Pizza ... including training mobster Jimmy the Weasel’s son, Tommy from the ground up … dealing with his boss, Mutazz...

Three words … Jewish trailer park.Weiss Acres is home to an eccentric, eclectic and always electric group of Jews who practice their faith under the ever-watchful, often-wild eyes of rabbi Yeshayahu Shapotshnick.An innocent delivery of shawarmas sparks a romance between Fawzi Wazzabehr,...

In a Guantanamo Bay Prison, terrorists Atakan Kihlall and his servant, Sirhan Rappi, eat Froot Loops. Kihall hates the breakfast cereal. They dream of escape.At the same time in St. Johns, Newfoundland, Gord McDougall plays a game of chicken with his uncle outside the house while Gord's...

Essays discuss the terminology, etymology, and history of key terms, offering a foundation for critical historical studies of games. Even as the field of game studies has flourished, critical historical studies of games have lagged behind other areas of research. Histories have generally been...