Chin Music. A 95 mile-per-hour fastball thrown at a hitter’s chin -- an instant’s difference between disrupting the batter’s concentration and hitting him in the head. As a metaphor in life, chin music is the split second when destinies are altered and all of our certainties about who we are change forever.
Sixteen-year-old Ryan Buck is a talented athlete who was fortunate to escape with minor injuries from the horrific car crash that devastated his family. But factor in the suffocating guilt and the recurring nightmare that plagues him and maybe Ryan wasn’t so lucky, after all. Two-and-a-half years and countless hours of therapy later, Ryan still can’t remember a thing about the accident and it’s making for agonizingly slow progress.
But everything changes when his mom, Susan, is forced to sell the old Babe Ruth artifacts that have been in the family for years. Enter Sam Frank, a Yoda-like figure, who saves Susan from making a costly mistake. Sam’s friendship and knowledge provides the support Susan needs to investigate a secret that has plagued her family for generations – the remarkable encounter between her great grandmother Zel and the immortal Yankee slugger.
As Ryan slowly makes progress, baseball becomes an important outlet, emotionally and physically. When his superior talent for the sport is recognized, a chance at the major leagues becomes a reality, leaving Susan torn between her excitement at Ryan's prospects and protecting her family from the truth that will turn their world upside down.
When the facts emerge, it becomes a story with startling implications for the Buck family, baseball, and sports fans across America.
