Local author spins touching yarn with novel on disabled ballplayer

PAWTUCKET – Rhode Island author Thom Ring is hopeful that his latest novel, “Henry Hits the Ball,” will be as much of a hit as it is when the book’s titular subject smacks a baseball.

“Henry Hits the Ball” is described as Ring’s fictional “novel for grownups.” Its subject is Henry Brademeier, who can slug a baseball better than anyone who has ever stepped foot on a diamond. The problem is that Henry has never been given a chance to play the sport he loves due to his intellectual challenges.

It’s not until Lou Esposito, a scout with the Chicago White Sox, is sent to a high school game to observe a pitcher that the big-league club is considering acquiring. The pitcher turns out to be what the ever-cynical Esposito expects, but it’s at that game that Esposito finds a prospect he never could have imagined: Henry Brademeier.

Esposito initially is dismissive of Henry, labeling him in much the same way so many before him have. But when Henry takes batting practice with the home team, Esposito is stunned to see just how effective the young man is with the lumber in his hands. Henry smacks ball after ball, regardless of whether the pitches thrown to him are perfect strikes, rolling to the plate, or high over his head. It’s at that moment that the seasoned scout decides his bosses have to see if Henry has what it takes to play the game.

Thus begins a 350-page journey for the slugger that takes him to spring training in Florida and promotions through the White Sox’ minor-league system.

Henry’s story was recounted at Stillwater Books in downtown Pawtucket on Saturday afternoon, as Thom Ring celebrated the independently-published book’s launch.

Ring, of the Pascoag section of Burrillville, grew up in East Providence and Seekonk and attended high school at Saint Raphael Academy in Pawtucket. He’s been writing children’s racing adventures for years, spinning off of his own love for racing. But “Henry Hits the Ball” is his first foray into a format that’s neither a children’s book nor about racing.

Ring works full-time at the Sargent Rehabilitation Center in East Greenwich, where he works with people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries or live with disabilities. He’s met many boys through his work and he’s learned that “boys think reading is a bad thing. That’s why I started the racing books.”

Prior to working at Sargent Rehabilitation Center, Ring worked with The Arc of the Blackstone Valley and people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. It was there, he said, that he first learned about “savants,” or people who are considered “developmentally delayed” but have “this incredible skill that people can’t even believe.”

Thus was the creation of hitting savant Henry Brademeier, who hits every ball thrown in his direction but has no concept of home plate, the batter’s box, or how to run the bases.

“That’s the adventure for people who recognize this incredible ability he has, can he learn to play the sport? Part of that is job coaching,” Ring explained. “Henry’s signed by the White Sox and he brings a job coach with him. They go through the process of running the bases, learning the difference between fair and foul.”

“You follow Henry and his job coach as he goes to Florida and is promoted through the minors,” Ring added. “The story is the people around him and how they learn from him.”

Ring said his hope is that readers are inspired by Henry’s story – much in the same way his teammates and coaches are – and that they become more open-minded to people with intellectual challenges.

“Henry has a hard time doing anything else, but he sure can hit a baseball,” Ring said. “That opens the players’ and coaches’ minds … We’re so caught up in the people who are different from us these days that a little acceptance would be a good thing.”

For Ring, the process of telling Henry’s story came naturally, saying the flow of writing exists from the moment he sits down at his keyboard and that writer’s block is a relatively uncommon practice.

“I don’t sit down and do an outline, I start writing not knowing where I’m going to end up, like I’m the first person who hears the story…” he said. “With this, Henry called more upon what I’ve learned from work. It was kind of a different author in a way but it was organic.”