Switch Hitter

Astros first baseman Tommy Stevens is three games from breaking an eighty-five-year-old record for career games played when his heart misfires and drops him on the concrete of the ballpark garage, directly under a sign that reads RESERVED FOR HISTORY. His cardiologist benches him for the season. The rulebook, though, only requires Tommy Stevens to appear in the game, and Tommy has an identical twin he hasn't spoken to in twenty years. Danny, a San Francisco event planner with tortoiseshell glasses and strong opinions about peonies, gets halfway through throwing Tommy out of his apartment before he decides to negotiate. He'll go strike out in his brother's uniform if Tommy spends the next two weeks living Danny's life, Sunday brunch and softball practice included. Nobody suspects a switch, exactly. The Astros clubhouse concludes that Tommy must be dying, since he's started saying good morning, and the casseroles start showing up. Back in San Francisco, Danny's friends are convinced he's having a masc phase and stage an intervention with a printed agenda.