Welcome to the wide world of paranormal pastimes, where striking out might strike you dead.

Editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner are your announcers for this all-new story collection of the most peculiar plays ever made.…

Sports fans live and die by their teams’ successes and failures - though not literally. But these 14 authors have written spirited - in more ways than one - new tales of killer competitions that would make even the most die-hard players ask to be benched.

In number-one New York Times best-selling author Charlaine Harris’s "The Blue Hereafter", Manfred Bernardo learns about softball from a certain blond barmaid in Louisiana.

Life-and-death stakes make the competition get serious in New York Times best seller William Kent Krueger’s "Hide and Seek".

New York Times best-selling author Mercedes Lackey’s "False Knight on the Road" features a high-stakes drag race on a foggy mountain road between a clever young bootlegger and a mysterious stranger.

In New York Times best-selling author Laura Lippman’s "Ice", a young girl learns the true story behind a bit of neighborhood folklore.

New York Times best seller Seanan McGuire presents "Jammed", in which a chimera loose during the Roller Derby makes it anyone’s guess as to who will still be skating by the time the buzzer sounds.

In number-one New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson’s "Dreamer", a game of cops and robbers is a new challenge when the players are able to switch bodies at will.

And New York Times best-selling author Scott Sigler follows ghost stomper Hunter Hunterson as he investigates a haunted, never-ending baseball game in "The Case of the Haunted Safeway".

These and eight more supernatural sporting stories are guaranteed to have you rooting for the home team…or else.…

"Introduction" © 2014 by Charlaine Harris, Inc., and Toni L. P. Kelner. "In the Blue Hereafter" © 2014 by Charlaine Harris, Inc. "Hide and Seek" © 2014 by William Kent Krueger. "Stepping into the Dead Zone" © 2014 by The Zoo After Dark, Inc. "Dead on the Bones" © 2014 by Joe R. Lansdale. "The Devil Went down to Boston" © 2014 by Caitlin Kittredge. "On the Playing Fields of Blood" © 2014 by Brendan DuBois. "The God’s Games" © 2014 by Dana Cameron. "The Case of the Haunted Safeway" © 2014 by Empty Set Entertainment, LLC. "Prise de Fer" © 2014 by Ellen Kushner. "Dreamer" © 2014 by Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC. "False Knight on the Road" © 2014 by Mercedes Lackey. "Jammed" © 2014 by Seanan McGuire. "Hide and Shriek" © 2014 by Adam- Troy Castro. "Ice" © 2014 by Laura Lippman. "Bell, Book, and Candlepin" © 2014 by Toni L. P. Kelner.