Every credit on the Out of the Pocket audiobook points toward straightforward youth sports fiction, and then the byline stops that reading cold. The author field on this listing names Kirk Herbstreit, the longtime college football broadcaster, but the synopsis introduces the book as the work of "emerging author Blythe Stanfel," and two of the five reviews on file back that second name specifically. I'm laying out both versions here rather than picking one, because nothing in this listing lets me settle which byline is accurate.
Synopsis language is explicit here: "emerging author Blythe Stanfel gives us her first captivating novel, Out of the Pocket." That framing lines up with two listener reviews. Tbogz writes, "Looking forward to Stanfel's next book," and Sharon's review states plainly that the "Author showed her depth of research in her well written book." Both reference Stanfel by name and both use "her," matching the synopsis. None of the five reviews mention Kirk Herbstreit at all. Whichever name belongs on the cover you actually own, it's worth checking before you attribute credit for this one to either name.
Strip the authorship question away and the story itself is clear enough. Mercer Murray is a high school senior and football player in the suburban Midwest whose father, a Major, is deployed to Iraq during the 2003 and 2004 fighting. Bookreader98725 describes Mercer as "a typical teenager" who is "initially...also selfish, full of himself and immature," the kind of flawed narrator who has room to grow. That growth comes largely through Mercer's correspondence with Ahmed, a young Iraqi translator working alongside Mercer's father, a relationship the synopsis frames as two young men on opposite sides of the same war learning to support each other across the distance. The synopsis is also careful to keep Mercer an ordinary teenager underneath the war plot, one "struggling with football, girls, and most of all, his father fighting in the Iraq War," so the book reads less like a war novel wearing a football jacket than a coming-of-age story that happens to be set against a deployment.
Why Listen to Out of the Pocket
The book is built as a journal-and-email novel, and LoraLynne calls that structure "a wonderful way to tell the story," specifically because it lets the listener sit inside "the perspective of two teenage boys who were both experiencing the war in dramatically different ways." That dual perspective, an American football player at home and an Iraqi translator abroad, is the book's real engine, more than any single game or season. Narrator Dan Kassis carries both voices across the 7-hour, 6-minute runtime, and since none of the five reviews comment on the narration itself, I can't confirm how distinctly the two correspondents are differentiated in performance, which matters more here than in a single-narrator sports novel.
What the reviews do confirm is a consistently strong reception: all five visible ratings sit at five stars, above the 4.6 badge shown on the page, and several reviewers frame the book as a rare crossover that works for reluctant teen readers. Sheila calls it a book that "brought tears to my eyes" with "history and religion woven in," adding a heartfelt "Thank you for sharing your gift of writing!" and calling it "Perfect for teens and above." Tbogz singles out the format itself as "a great way to capture the characters in a journalistic point of view."
What to Watch For in Out of the Pocket
Go in aware that this reads closer to YA historical fiction than a football novel with war as backdrop. The synopsis pitches it explicitly for classroom use, noting that "high school English and history teachers could use Out of the Pocket as a median to teach about the Iraq war while analyzing themes, symbolism, and character development," and closes on the line "the best way to teach history is to tell a story." If you came for game-day football drama, the emotional center of the book sits with Mercer's father overseas and his long-distance friendship with Ahmed rather than with any single match.
The authorship mismatch is worth sitting with too, not because it changes what's inside the audiobook, but because it affects what you're crediting when you leave a rating or recommend it to someone else. This title released in 2014 through the small imprint Library Tales Publishing, and the five visible reviews here all date to that same year, so this is an older listing with a smaller, older review base than the current count of 27 ratings suggests. Those five written reviews remain the fullest picture available of how the book actually plays.
Who Should Listen to Out of the Pocket
Listeners drawn to YA war fiction built on real correspondence rather than combat scenes will find plenty here, especially anyone who wants a football-adjacent story that uses the sport as characterization rather than spectacle. Teachers and parents looking for a classroom-friendly entry point into the Iraq War through a teenage lens, per the synopsis's own pitch, are squarely the intended audience, and the synopsis's promise that "even those with short-attention spans will be captivated" by the journal-and-email format suggests the publisher had reluctant teen readers in mind too.
Steer clear if you want a football novel focused on the field, or if the unresolved authorship question bothers you enough that you'd rather wait for a corrected listing before deciding whether to leave a review yourself. Listeners who care more about the emotional weight of Mercer and Ahmed's friendship than about clean plot mechanics are the ones most likely to walk away moved, based on what the five reviewers describe.
Quick Take
- Performance: Dan Kassis narrates alone across a journal-and-email structure that puts a wartime correspondence between Mercer and Ahmed, an Iraqi translator, at its center.
- What it covers: wartime family separation, cross-cultural friendship under conflict, coming-of-age through letters and email
- Feel: Earnest and quietly heavy, more elegy than sports triumph
- Our call: Worth a listen for the Mercer-Ahmed correspondence alone, but check the author field before crediting either name on the cover to your shelf.
Before You Listen
Why does the Out of the Pocket audiobook list two different names for its author?
The listing's author field names Kirk Herbstreit, but the synopsis credits "emerging author Blythe Stanfel," and two reviews, from Tbogz and Sharon, independently reference Stanfel by name using "her." Neither version is confirmed within this listing, so it's worth checking before attributing the book to either name.
Does the audiobook narrator voice Mercer and Ahmed differently?
Narrator Dan Kassis reads both correspondents in this journal-and-email format novel, but none of the five available reviews comment on the narration itself, so no listener account confirms how distinctly the two voices are differentiated across the seven-hour, six-minute runtime, which is worth knowing before you press play.
