(Radio Iowa) – A central Iowa T-V sportscaster has realized a life-long dream with the publishing of a book that makes youth baseball a life or death proposition. Scott Reister says the book “Baseball Spy” features a kid named Zane who is trying to find a deadly spy on his team before things go wrong. “And if he doesn’t keep winning kuh-blammi everything goes down so literally in Baseball Spy the book it’s life or death Little League is life or death,” Reister says. Reister says the idea for the story came from his own baseball experience.

“Maybe I was 11 or 12 and I’m about to bat and in this pressure situation, I felt all these eyes on me and I thought, man, it’s not like it’s life or death, right?,” he says. “And then I started thinking, what if it was, what if I didn’t get this hit? Then there’s some bad guy out there about to blow everything up. And I always thought that’d be the coolest idea for a book or a movie, and I never really did anything about it. And I started thinking about if I ever wrote a book that was it, and I finally dedicated myself to figuring out how to write a book.” While the book’s plot includes spies and potential destruction, he says it’s a thriller that adults or kids would like.

“I would say if you’re about that fourth grade age anything younger than that be hard to kind of grasp the plot, but adults love it, kids love it, it’s a great gift especially if you have kids playing baseball, Reister says. He says the book has sold well already and says the plot keeps everyone interested. “There’s two major twists in the story that kind of propel the story forward, and then the end is so exciting, all heck breaks loose in the very end scene,” he says.

Reister had done a lot of writing as a sportscaster, but had to learn a whole new set of skills to write the book. It took him six years to get the book published and he has this advice for anyone who wants to give it a try. “As long as you’re willing to wait and not give up and seek as much advice as possible. And also take your time before you send it to literary agents, you know, you only get one shot at it to write that pitch letter to these agents,” Reister says. “So unless you know you’ve spent all that time on the book, and it’s as good as it can possibly be, don’t rush it. Take your time, get it completely ready, and then start to begin that process.”

Reister’s patience paid off and he now has a deal for two more books, with the ending of “Baseball Spy” setting up the second book, “Football Spy.” He has been busy doing signings are little leagues in central Iowa. You can find the book on Amazon and other book sellers.

Here are some of the upcoming book signings:
Saturday 5/11 3:00-5:00 Barnes and Noble (Jordan Creek)
Tuesday 5/21 6:30-8:00 Beaverdale Books
Saturday 6/8 11:30-1:30 Barnes and Noble (University Clive)
Saturday 6/29 10-12 Urbandale Public Library