essays

When Ted Williams died a few months ago, someone described "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," John Updike's chronicle of Williams' final game, as "the most perfect piece of sports writing ever." I looked for it in this collection, and there it was. When the baseball season ended last week (for us Mariners fans, anyway), another friend quoted Bart Giamatti's famous elegy that begins, "It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart." Like they say about the spaghetti sauce, "It's in there."

More than any other sport, I think, baseball seems to inspire writing that's lyrical without being cheesy or cloying. That much is apparent in this collection, which also treats us to "Casey at the Bat" (naturally), Owen Johnston, Ring Lardner, Nelson Algren, Jimmy Breslin, Roger Angell, and much more (but, I observe without comment, no George Will). When my lovely bride gave me this collection back in June, I knew it would be a perfect companion for the season. Now I'm finding it an even better companion for the still young off-season. So as we try to figure out how many days are left until pitchers and catchers report to spring training, this great collection of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and prose will carry us forward, and back, to summer.

Baseball, in the time frame that it happened. This book is an excellent view of events in their time. It is a compilation of articles from writers, players, comentaters and owners. Although the book sometimes seems to jump around this can be expected when you are piecing together articles by so many different people. Where else could you find articles in the same book by Satchel Paige, Stephen King and A. Bartlett Giamatti. Baseball seems timeless and this book presents that. With first hand acounts of people and events that are long gone.

Of particular interest to me was the chapter where Lawrence Ritter talks to Sam Crawford. Sam's views on life and people are engrossing, his assessement of opposing players provocative and his memories of the game eye-opening.

Overall this book should be read by any fan of baseball. It's a unique book and is full (over 700 pages) of interesting reading. The entire history of baseball is covered in this book.

This is not the quality binding you would expect from Library of America! I have not yet read this book but I have my copy here in my hand. The binding appears to be glued, not sewn. The covers
are not cloth, but flimsy, slick cardboard. This is really a disappointing sight from the project which made its name with
sturdy cloth editions. This might still make a nice gift book, but it is not what I expected from this publisher.