Better Angels

Seven-year-old David Phelan watched the drama unfold through the wide window of Windsor's Mulvaney's Tavern and feared for his mother, Lulu Pearl. Wallace Phelan had broken his Temperance Oath and promise to quit The Loyal Orange Lodge and leave Ireland's religious "Troubles" behind them.

"Sure, and if you want criticism-marry! Be off home, woman!"

"Home? Oh yes, Wallace, I'll be off home, alright...but you'll be coming with me!"

With one swing of his father's own Ty Cobb bat, loyal wife and Temperance leader, Lulu Pearl Phelan, struck her wayward husband a mighty blow to the head. His father just- disappeared.

And his formidable mother would not be the only unlikely hero to change David's life.

***

"Better Angels takes the reader on David Charles Phelan's quest for a rare 1954 Topps 201 Al Kaline rookie baseball card. The story begins in 1919 with larger-than-life characters like David's baseball bat-wielding grandmother, Lulu Pearl Phelan, part of the "Famine Irish" community of Windsor, Ontario. Also larger than life is Big Al Greathwaite, car salesman and catalyst in the tense and dramatic competition for the unique baseball card. Packed with baseball lore and historical detail, this book immerses the reader in a time few remember, a story resonant with the lasting impacts our actions have on each other's lives."

- Joanna Streetly, author of Silent Inlet and Wild Fierce Life