Howard Burman

Willie, Mickey & The Duke is a coming-of-age story of four friends and a game. The time is 1956; the place, New York City. The game is stickball, a street variation of baseball, and to those who played it, their passion. The friends, because of their exceptional athletic skills, are known in the neighborhood as Willie, Mickey and The Duke after the three great centerfielders. Together, they are the Bayside Knights, a fabled team of the streets. They play for pride, and they play for money.

It is the summer following the boys’ high school graduation. A game is arranged between the two greatest stickball teams in the city with local gamblers supplying the backing. The game becomes a legendary event in the folklore of the city, and in its wake, the boys are never the same. Like the decade itself, they lose whatever remaining innocence they might have possessed.