Happy Opening Day!
Play ball! As the Orioles season opens today, it's a chance to reflect on why we love baseball. Some of my reasons:
1. Perfect combination of team concept and focus on individual performance. Imagine standing in at the plate with 50,000 people watching.
2. The sport that gave us baseball caps.
3. Plenty of time to read between innings.
4. The smell of a new glove.
5. More better books.
Among my favorites are Koufax by Jane Leavy, Late Innings (and anything else) by Roger Angell, The Universal Baseball Association by Robert Coover, Babe by Robert Creamer and Moneyball by Michael Lewis. Also: John Updike's magazine piece "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," and "The Visitors Lineup," a chapter from Philip Roth's The Great American Novel.
Each season brings a dugout full of new books. Among the promising titles include Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee by Allen Barra (I know, I can't stand the Yankees either, but he was before my time), The Corporal Was a Pitcher by Ira Berkow and The Complete Game by Ron Darling (former N.Y. Met, yes!).
Tell us why you love baseball. One lucky winner will get a new book.
Comments
Zane Gray (the Cowboy Book guy) wrote 3 baseball books that seem to be aimed at adolescent boys. I have The Redheaded Outfield and Other Baseball Stories and have actually seen and snuck a semi-read of - but could not afford - the other 2 books, The Shortstop and The Young Pitcher. They're definietly from another era, but I like the one and hope to runa cross the other 2 sometime, right after I win the lottery.
Posted by: Eve | April 6, 2009 9:42 AM
I love the personalities it attracts. And the movies and musicals it inspires! (Damn Yankees is my favorite.) And the esprit de corps at the games. And even the food! Somehow junk food tastes better at an outdoor game.
Posted by: rhapsodyinbooks | April 6, 2009 12:06 PM
Another terrific baseball book that you and your readers might enjoy is “The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth” by Leigh Montville. It gives new insight into the Babe, including an account of his struggle with attention-deficit disorder and the suggestion that it contributed to his high-energy approach to baseball, booze and sex.
Posted by: Mel | April 6, 2009 2:53 PM
Ballparks are great family places. I'm thinking of what Hank Aaron said about the day he broke Babe Ruth's homerun record. At home plate, he was met by his teammates who attempted to lift him onto their shoulders. But he slipped off into the arms of his mother and father. "I never knew," Aaron commented later, "that my mother could hug so tight."
Posted by: Gail Farrelly | April 6, 2009 3:57 PM
Rhapsody, you're dead on -- I don't think there's a sport that has inspired better movies (and certainly musicals).
Duped, I can still remember painting a bedsheet for a Mets game (I think it sais "New Britain Loves the Mets") back when banners were paraded around the stadium.
And Eve, while searching through a second-hand booksktore some years ago, I found The Kid Who Batted 1.000, a baseball book I devoured as a kid. It was about a boy who wasn't a very good player but had a talent for fouling off pitches until he walked. A very corny ending, but I got great enjoyment out of re-reading it.
Posted by: Dave | April 6, 2009 4:14 PM
Did you see this review of "Brown Sugar"? Sounds like another good baseball film! http://www.theroot.com/views/baseballs-brown-sugar
Posted by: rhapsodyinbooks | April 7, 2009 7:12 PM