Dimished Capacity by Sherwood Kiraly, author of three other novels including "California Rush," "Big Babies" and "Who's Hot, Who's Not," is a humorous story about an unlikely trio who hatch a plan to sell a rare baseball card, and is the basis for the motion picture starring Matthew Broderick, Alan Alda, and Virginia Madsen.
The townsfolk once voted him the strangest man in Missouri, but he turned the honor down, claiming it was "just a popularity contest." He has baited hooks connected to the keys of an old typewriter by the side of the Mississippi, so the local fish can write poetry. He keeps stacks of old newspapers piled up to his bedroom ceiling, and he doesn't know why. They don't get much more eccentric than old Rollie Zerbs of LaPorte, Missouri. But he does have one thing going for him--a rare 1909 Chicago Cubs tobacco baseball card, one of the most valuable cards in existence. And even though he can't remember where he just put it, he's on his way to Chicago to see what the card will bring...