
Hope is familiar territory for Gene Ionescu. He has always loved baseball, a sport made for underdogs and optimists like him. He also loves his team, the minor league Beaverton Beavers, and, for the most part, he loves the career he’s built. As the first openly trans player in professional baseball, Gene has nearly everything he’s ever let himself dream of—that is, until Luis Estrada, Gene’s former teammate and current rival, gets traded to the Beavers, destroying the careful equilibrium of Gene’s life. Gene and Luis can’t manage a civil conversation off the field or a competent play on it, but in the close confines… Read more,
Trigger and Content Warnings
- Transphobia mentioned & deadnaming recounted
- Coming out themes
- Alcohol consumption & smoking mentioned (secondary character)
- Parent with alcoholism recounted
- Anxiety & panic attacks
- Surgery & needles mentioned
- Hospitalisation for fainting from dehydration after a panic attack
- Minor sport injury (secondary character)
- Death of a father recounted
- Car accident recounted*
*Context : A protagonist had a panic attack while driving. Mentions of scars from top surgery, and the use of needles for testosterone injections and ear piercings. A protagonist is adopted by his uncle after his alcoholic mother abandoned him as a child.









