The book “The Only Game”, written by Mike Lupica, is a realistic fiction sports novel. In this story Jack Callahan, a 13 year old boy,who lives in a baseball town called Walton, is grieving over his older brother Brad's death and learning how to handle the stress in his life, especially baseball. He wants to make his brother proud, but cannot help but blame himself for his brother's death. Why is he blaming himself? He decides he needs a break from baseball to focus on dealing with his brother's death. Once news gets around that the best player on the boys baseball team is quitting, Jack's friends get angry that Jack left without an explanation. Jack also has to decide how to tell his parents that he has decided to quit baseball. While Jack is taking a break from baseball he makes some new friends that support him and remind him how beneficial baseball is in his life. After his new friends help him work through his grief and get him back out on the field Jack decides to help them show off their own talent on the field. He teaches them the rules of baseball and reminds them how important it is to believe in yourself. But who is teaching who? The topics addressed in this book are grief, love, loss, guilt, trust and friendships.This teaches how important good mental health is when playing a sport. Overall I love the lesson that the book taught and I would definitely recommend this book. I give this book a 4.5 star rating.