It's one of the great American pastimes... but it's not always linked to literary endeavors. In this collection, Nicholas Dawidoff brings together literary pieces about baseball. Through stories, memoirs, poems, news reports, and insider accounts, this volume explores what it is about baseball that has brought so many people together, in love and even in obsession with the game.
It's sometimes easy to forget that baseball had to begin somewhere... It didn't always exist in its current form, with rules, giant ballparks, leagues, and all the rest. In his Introduction, Dawidoff says that baseball was first referenced by John Newberry in 1744. The word was linked to the letter "B" and Newberry wrote, "The ball once struck / Away flies the boy / From each abandoned post / To the next with joy."
The History of Literary Baseball
Since then, other writers have discussed baseball. But, though we can find references in literature from British and American literature, most of the references are brief. For instance, in Chapter 1 of Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen wrote: "Mrs. Morland was a very good woman, and wished to see her children everything they ought to be; but her time was so much occupied... and it was not very wonderful that Catherine... should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of fourteen, to books..."
The History of Literary Baseball
Since then, other writers have discussed baseball. But, though we can find references in literature from British and American literature, most of the references are brief. For instance, in Chapter 1 of Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen wrote: "Mrs. Morland was a very good woman, and wished to see her children everything they ought to be; but her time was so much occupied... and it was not very wonderful that Catherine... should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of fourteen, to books..."
In 1824, American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: "there is nothing now heard of, in our leisure hours, but ball—ball—ball." Of course, his version of "ball" is very different from the "baseball" we think of in current baseball literature, but much of the conception of the game itself is the same. Even early in the 19th century, writers were already envisioning baseball as America's national game. Walt Whitman even said, "it's our game: that's the chief fact in connection with it: America's game." As Whitman captured the spirit of America in his literary way, he felt compelled to link baseball to that spirit...
The Spirit of America
Dawidoff writes, "Like so many writers after them, Twain and Whitman thought baseball expressed something fundamental about America: it was wild, vigorous, improvisational, rushing toward the future." And, literature follows along behind... on the wild, wild ride.
The Spirit of America
Dawidoff writes, "Like so many writers after them, Twain and Whitman thought baseball expressed something fundamental about America: it was wild, vigorous, improvisational, rushing toward the future." And, literature follows along behind... on the wild, wild ride.
In the 1860's Clarence Darrow wrote, "I have snatched my share of joys from the grudging hands of Fate as I have jogged along, but never has life held for me anything quite so entrancing as baseball." And, in 1913, H.L. Mencken explained that baseball stimulates "a childish and orgiastic local pride, a typical American weakness..."
It's hard to say what all of the excitement is about. There are so many different factors. Baseball involves a competition, the facing off between two teams in a battle the final inning. But, the game also involves heroes, those men who made spectacular plays for thousands of cheering fans. Perhaps it's true what Richard Ford says about sports having very little lasting value, but there's something about the game that lasts for generations.
It's hard to say what all of the excitement is about. There are so many different factors. Baseball involves a competition, the facing off between two teams in a battle the final inning. But, the game also involves heroes, those men who made spectacular plays for thousands of cheering fans. Perhaps it's true what Richard Ford says about sports having very little lasting value, but there's something about the game that lasts for generations.
Beyond a diversion, Dawidoff lists: heroes and villains, scraps of gossip, ethical conundrums, moments of despair, laughter, tears, plenty of hope, and the occasional lasting satisfaction. All of these factors figure in as reasons baseball is still such a popular sport, and they also help to explain why some of our greatest authors have written about the sport. Dawidoff says, "the wonderful, irresistible game of baseball, so enduring in its rules and rhythms, so varied in its lore and lexicon, has everything a writer could ask for, most especially the opportunity for vivid characters to involve themselves in a highly dramatic activity."
Dawidoff remembers his grandfather's love for baseball. His grandfather "didn't confuse baseball with life..." Instead, he saw baseball as a "good prism" to "look over and think about life." By these refractions of words and thoughts, and other stories, this collection may well bring you to some greater understanding of what life is all about. Perhaps, it can't do anything at all. But, Dawidoff makes a gallant effort here to, as he says, "use baseball to conjure with life." It's all about the spell of baseball... and the power of words.
Dawidoff remembers his grandfather's love for baseball. His grandfather "didn't confuse baseball with life..." Instead, he saw baseball as a "good prism" to "look over and think about life." By these refractions of words and thoughts, and other stories, this collection may well bring you to some greater understanding of what life is all about. Perhaps, it can't do anything at all. But, Dawidoff makes a gallant effort here to, as he says, "use baseball to conjure with life." It's all about the spell of baseball... and the power of words.
