Summary:The 5th Inning is poet and literary activist E. Ethelbert Miller's second memoir. Coming a decade after Fathering words: the making of an African American writer, this book finds Miller returning to baseball, the game of his youth, in order to find the metaphor that will provide the measurement of his life. At 60, he ponders whether his life can now be entered into the official record books as a success of failure. The 5th Inning is one man's examination of personal relationships, depression, love and loss. This is a story of the individual alone on the pitching mound or in the batter's box. It's a box score filled with remembrance. It's a combination of baseball and the blues