Lovely is the word I keep coming back to when I try to describe the story of Mark and Eddie. The mid-century setting is charmingly retro in some ways, while still carrying the undercurrent of danger that queer love faced during that period (and beyond, frankly).

As a baseball fan, I adored the backdrop of a player in a slump, on a team at the bottom, with the reluctant fan base learning to support its team. I loved Eddie's progression from naive kid to someone who understood what he wanted, and what he was willing to give up. 

And Mark...how can you not fall in love with a grumpy reporter who refuses to be the anonymous byline in his own story? His grief, his frustration, and his concern for real-world consequences was a necessary grounding in a story that would otherwise threaten to be too unrealistic.

Of course, as a love story, there's always going to be a suspension of disbelief. But when the characters are this lovely, and the relationship this earned, I have no issue delving into the fiction of it all.