Season on the Drink

Reviews / Votes

"A Season on the Drink is a story of challenge, hope, and coming together as a team to do something extraordinary that can transform-even for a moment... It's a story of redemption, dignity, and purpose."

-Dave Winfield, National Baseball Hall of Fame


"Harris' book is a tribute to the community around local sports. He writes about an ordinary place filled with extraordinary people full of dignity and lives full of meaning. It's a sobering story of sports, friendship and stands as a restorative first-rate read."

-Jack Hannahan, former Major League Baseball player


"The best baseball stories are deeply rooted in a love for the game while also casting an unflinching eye at the world beyond the foul poles. Count A Season on the Drink among those stories. Pat Harris masterfully blends wry humor with an honest, moving portrayal of addiction to create a memorable cast of characters who keep readers rooting for them even after the last pitch is thrown."

-Jack Heffron, author of The Local Boys


"Harris's debut is a remarkable novel whose subject is, on its surface, a softball team made up of chronic alcoholics. Immersion in its storytelling, however, reveals greater depths, focusing on a handful of characters from the team and the Saint Anthony Residence."

-Julia Kastner, "Maximum Shelf," Shelf Awareness


"A Season on the Drink is a powerful and compassionate portrait of the men living at the St. Anthony Residence-fittingly named for the patron saint of lost things. While Harris offers an honest account of all they have lost-stability, relationships, health, and purpose-he also reveals what remains: moments of connection, resilience, and the hope of being seen. At its heart, this is a story about our need to belong, even in the most overlooked and forgotten places."

-Pat Plonski, Executive Director, Books for Africa




"Finding your place in the world isn't always a fastball down the middle. A Season on the Drink captures the hopes and struggles we all face-on the field and off. Full of heart, humor, and hard truths, this one connects. I call 'em like I see 'em: it's a hit."

-Tim Tschida, legendary MLB umpire


"The joy of this wonderful book is the hunt. We search for ourselves in each of the characters. Adapt, examine, identify, discard. Like a great painting, A Season on the Drink is immersive in the best sense."

-Mike Veeck, Minor League Baseball team owner


"First pitch and you're in. A Season on the Drink is an original cocktail of true characters, orderly chaos, broken dreams, and a shaky team of outcasts desperate for redemption. Its free-swinging narrative neatly weaves through a lineup of complicated lives that intersect through personal pain and shared inspiration. It's a winner!"

-Dave Whitaker, author of Cabrini-Green in Words & Pictures