The Summer is for Baseball.

Prospect by Bill Littlefield

Prospect is a novel about a retired baseball scout named Pete Easty who has given up on his own life once he is not needed anymore by the team he worked for since they started using computerized scouting systems instead of 'baseball men' like Easty. At the beginning of the novel, Pete is living in a nursing home, waiting to die. He makes friends with one of the employees named Louise who has a great nephew who is a promising baseball player.

Louise wants Pete to watch her nephew play, but he insists that he is retired. When a fire burns down part of thew nursing home, Louise invites Pete to live with her until the building can be repaired, which is a trick to get Pete to look at her nephew.

Littlefield shows how someone's life can be restored when they begin to have confidence in themselves. Louise does this for Pete by proving to him that he can still matter in the baseball world.