Still Doing Time
Former minor-league baseball player Jimmy Bailey
Book Summary →
Still Doing Time
Former minor-league baseball player Jimmy Bailey spent four years in incarcerated after taking a plea deal for a crime he didn’t commit. He believed freedom awaited him on the day his sister, Debbie, picked him up from Walpole State Prison, a maximum-security facility in Massachusetts and brought him home to live with his mother in North Weymouth, Massachusetts.. Little did he know that both he and Debbie, as well as others they knew and loved, would face stalking, kidnapping, and more from people associated with the prison, and, even though Jimmy was no longer behind bars, he still didn’t feel free. Begun as a sequel to the 2017 novel Empty Seats by this author, Still Doing Time Iis a journey into intrigue, crime, conspiracy, kidnapping, baseball, and even a little romance, set in eastern Massachusetts in 1976. A touch of feminism, introspection, soul-searching, and racism cap off this novel, which also interacts with several celebrities of the time.
What readers say about the book🧐
When I first started Still Doing Time, I expected it to be a "sports novel," exploring the highs and lows, triumphs and disappointments of a career in professional baseball. However, as it turns out, its hero, Jimmy, has just been released from a four-year prison term for a crime he didn't commit, and despite his aspirations, the best he can do is secure a job doing laundry for the Boston Red Sox. I soon discovered-- to my unexpected delight-- that this novel is about human relationships, not baseball. One set of those relationships is that of good people versus evil ones, as Jimmy, his friends and family become the targets of a corrupt and violent prison gang (with connections to outside collaborators). Jimmy and his people fight back, and the result is a an intense, suspenseful series of encounters between the two sides, one which keeps readers on the edge of their seats. But while this struggle is going on, other kinds of relationships are explored-- namely, those of love and friendship. As for love, Jimmy meets Eileen, a technician at a clinic he visits, and they gradually find that they are meant for each other. A parallel relationship occurs between his sister Debbie and Tony, a detective she meets as he works to expose the gang. Both loves develop slowly and tenderly, as so many do in "real life," Friendships, like those between Jimmy and his former cell mate and Debbie and her ex-lover, are treated as just as crucial to human happiness as romantic love. The narrative involves numerous short chapters, giving the tale a cinematic feeling with a propulsive beat, and the use of the first-person "I" voice for Jimmy at the start makes the reader feel almost like a character in the story. Finally, as a 73-year-old female, I have to mention that I loved the way elderly females were portrayed‐ not as "cute" and passive, but as active forces against evil as one clobbers a villain with a baseball bat and another with a lasagna pan! Altogether, Still Doing Time is a terrific read, lively, engaging, and uplifting in its sensitive exploration of human relationships.
Karen Field
About the Author →
Wanda Adams Fischer
Wanda Fischer began writing seriously when she was in the second grade.
She has loved baseball since she was nearly eight years old. At one point in her life, she aspired to become a sportswriter; however, in the mid-to-late 1960s, that avenue was difficult for women to pursue. After retiring from a 40-year career in public relations/marketing/media relations, she parlayed her love of America’s pastime into her first novel, “Empty Seats,” which is not necessarily about her favorite team, the Boston Red Sox.
Since that her debut novel appeared, she has released a second book, “A Few Bumps,” along with several short stories, all of which are available on Amazon.
When not writing or watching baseball, she’s listening to folk music for her show, “The Hudson River Sampler,” on WAMC-FM, the Albany, New York National Public Radio affiliate–a program she’s done since September 1982. In February 2019, the Folk Alliance International inducted her into its Folk Music DJ Hall of Fame. The Proctors Collaborative also inducted her into the local Thomas Edison Music Hall of Fame in 2023 to recognize the work she has done to promote music in New York’s Capital Region.
In 2012, she auditioned to become the public address announcer for the Red Sox and made the finals for the job, but ultimately wasn’t chosen. On August 5, 2012, she announced a complete game between the Red Sox and Minnesota Twins on “Vermont Day.”
She and her husband Bill, a retired physician, met at a coffeehouse at Boston College in 1966 and were married in 1973. They have two grown children and six grandchildren. They live in Schenectady, New York.