Safe at Home: A Season in the Valley, a chronicle of the 2009 season of the New Market Rebels Valley League baseball team written by author Austin Gisriel, has been released by Augusta Free Press Publishing.

The book takes fans “not just into the dugout, but into the stands, and into management, and into the press box,” said Gisriel, a Maryland resident and lifelong Baltimore Orioles fan who has fallen in love with New Market and its Rebels since his first game in Rebel Park in 2008.

“It’s 90 miles from my house to Rebel Park. It’s 90 miles from my house to Camden Yards. And as much an Orioles fan as I am, I’d much rather travel the 90 miles to Rebel Park,” said Gisriel, whose book covers the 2009 season from the final pitch of 2008 through work in the offseason to recruit players and sponsors to the action on the field and on long bus trips to road games.

“I think a lot of fans think, Well, it’s summer baseball, we’ll just invite 25 kids to our town, give them a uniform, and they can come and play for two months. But there’s so much more involved than that. And the reward that those people get from their participation, I thought that was something that was unexplored,” Gisriel said.

The book is available through Augusta Free Press Publishing and online here.