ONE OF US GETS OUT

In the summer of 1983, on a steep street in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, eight-year-old Danny Malloy knocks the only real ball on the block into a storm drain, and the skinny new kid who brought it, Nicky Costa, goes in headfirst to get it back. From that afternoon on, they are brothers in everything but blood.

Danny can hit. Ray Lomax, a retired Yankees center fielder who grew up on their street, sees it and hands him his own World Series glove. Nicky can talk, run, and find the hole in any fence in the city, and by twelve he is working the corner.

Danny goes to college, then to the Mets, then to the top of the game. Nicky stays. And in November 2004, Ray Lomax is shot dead at his own front gate, and his World Series ring is pulled off his hand.

The police arrest Nicky. Danny hires him the best lawyer in New York and takes the witness stand to defend his good name, against the wishes of Ray’s widow, his own ball club, and half the city.

Sixteen years after the verdict, on the night before Danny goes into the Hall of Fame, Nicky has one last thing to give him.

ONE OF US GETS OUT is a novel of baseball, the Bronx, and a loyalty strong enough to carry a man his whole life, and blind enough to keep him from seeing the truth.