The New Paltz Outlaws is the story of Lance Bangor, a talented but troubled pitcher that catches the eye of the New York Yankees and is sent to play for the most notorious minor league team in baseball, the New Paltz Outlaws. The Outlaws are a team full of talented but disturbed baseball players, from the first baseman with split personalities (one plays for the Negro Leagues, the other is an aspiring musician), a trio of Canadian criminals under town arrest, a barefooted outfielder that lives amongst animals in the forest, etc. When the present leader is taken off to jail, Lance becomes the new leader of the Outlaws and takes them to new heights of popularity and debauchery. Eventually becoming too big for the small town, Lance joins the New York Yankees but folds under big league pressure and finds himself banned from the game for life. Too embarrassed to return to New Paltz, Lance travels from the Caribbean to Hollywood and goes through a variety of professions from being a stuntman for an egotistical soap opera star to hitting rock bottom and becoming an exotic dancer and actor in amateur adult films. Finally garnering up the courage to return home, Lance falls in with a maniacal traveling stand-up comedian obsessed with world domination and finally gets back to New Paltz, where he must overcome his fears and immaturity and reunite with his former Outlaw teammates. When Major League Baseball goes on strike, the Outlaws once again become a major attraction that eventually leads to a one game showdown with the New York Yankees. The message the book promotes is "Even when you have nothing, you still have your friends" and is a story of one man's journey to hell, back and beyond. I hope you will laugh and cry and I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it. | The New Paltz Outlaws by Farrell Kaye, Paperback | Indigo Chapters