CORALVILLE– Former Johnson County reporter Jim Meisner, Jr. began his debut novel while living and working in Coralville.
From Immortal Works publishing, Faith, Hope, and Baseball is the story of Jason Yoder, a 17-year-old baseball phenomenon offered a contract to play baseball for the Chicago Cubs. Jason is an extraordinary baseball player, but he’s also Amish. He must choose between his Amish life and the outside world, knowing if he leaves, he may never return to the only life he’s even known.
The Immortal Works slogan is “appropriate for teens, intriguing for adults.”
“I began the story nearly 25 years ago as a screenplay when I lived in Iowa,” Meisner said. “Iowa has the largest population of Amish west of the Mississippi River, and the kids play a lot of baseball. A postcard of Amish kids playing baseball gave me the story idea.”
Meisner was the editor of the North Liberty Leader newspaper, in North Liberty, and a reporter for Iowa City’s KCJJ radio. He was also an award-winning columnist for the Daily Iowan, in Iowa City.
“I worked on the novel periodically over the decades, but when my daughter was born in 2014, I got serious about it,” he said. “While I was editing it, I showed the novel to anyone who would read it, and I continued to rewrite it for years. I made changes up until the month before it was printed.”
Meisner retired from the Commonwealth of Virginia after 22 years as an award-winning public relations professional.
The novel is getting positive early reviews.
“One of the best baseball books I’ve ever read,” said 1984 World Series champion Johnny Grubb. “This is a winner.”
The price is $15.99.
For more about the book, visit www.FaithHopeandBaseball.com.
Faith, Hope, and Baseball is available on Amazon, https://amzn.to/2YqVCOU.
To order an autographed copy, visit https://faithonthefringe.com/faith-hope-and-baseball-a-novel.
“I would love to Zoom meet with book clubs to talk about the book,” Meisner said. “I enjoy talking about baseball and the Amish, so much, I wrote a book about them.”

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Jim Meisner, Jr.