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Baseball Tales: Major League Writers on the National Pastime
Combines vivid photographs with classic stories by such writers as Damon Runyon, James Thurber, W. P. Kinsella, Edna Ferber, and Nunnally Johnson, in a memorable tribute to America's national pastime.
- GenresBaseballSportsNonfiction
112 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 21, 2016
If you believe (as I do) that summer = baseball (with a few other things thrown in like outdoor grilling and fresh fruit pies and corn on the cob.........), then you must read something by that master storyteller W.P. Kinsella
How I Got My Nickname--- W. P. Kinsella provides us high school version of himself as an already published author going to NYC and getting a tryout with the 1951 NY Giants. This is the team that came from 13 games back to win the pennant on the final day of the season. Kinsella is a kid who can hit the ball well, but is unathletic (due to diabetes) so he latches on as a pinch-hitter on the team. He learns a lot about his teammates, including that some speak more than one foreign language (including Latin) and most are reading significant works of literature! Willie Mays is into The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat; Sal Maglie reads Carson McCulller's Ballad of a Sad Cafe; Don Mueller leaves his copy of The Mill on the Floss in the on-deck circle, etc. Leo Durocher gets the kid's signature on a contract by inviting him to dinner with Bernard Malamud and J.D. Salinger. This is just a wonderful riff on the actual circumstances of that remarkable Giants baseball season where everyone on the team (except maybe the bat boy) cautions the author that he is wrong in trying to see The Great Gatsby as allegory.
You Could Look It Up by James Thurber - In 1951 Bill Veeck sent 3 foot 7 inch Eddie Gaedel out to pinch hit for the St. Louis Browns. This was the shortest person ever to be in Major League Baseball. With a miniscule strike zone, Gaedel walked on four pitches. This is a prime example of life imitating art, since Thurber wrote his story a decade earlier.
Baseball Hattie by Damon Runyon - A minor work by Runyon about an arrogant rookie with lots of potential (maybe an early relative of Nuke LaLoosh) and his encounters with Hattie, a regular at the ballpark. It comes complete with the typical Runyon ending twist.
The Rollicking God by Nunnally Johnson – A somewhat amusing riff on a conventional reporter’s frustration with another sportswriter’s attempts to analogize baseball to elements of the fine arts. The tension comes in the pennant race when one star player starts to believe what this reporter is writing.
Bush League Hero by Edna Ferber – Another highbrow-lowbrow piece with the aristocrats enjoying being part of the hoi polloi at the ballpark. It is a tale of a girl, Ivy Kellar, home to the cornfields of Iowa from a big city finishing school and her romance with baseball and a player who looked great in a uniform.
Heffernan's photo-collages are drawn from Baseball's Hall of Fame....very nice, very shiny. The book is thin and expensive for its contents, but it does make a nice gift.
How I Got My Nickname--- W. P. Kinsella provides us high school version of himself as an already published author going to NYC and getting a tryout with the 1951 NY Giants. This is the team that came from 13 games back to win the pennant on the final day of the season. Kinsella is a kid who can hit the ball well, but is unathletic (due to diabetes) so he latches on as a pinch-hitter on the team. He learns a lot about his teammates, including that some speak more than one foreign language (including Latin) and most are reading significant works of literature! Willie Mays is into The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat; Sal Maglie reads Carson McCulller's Ballad of a Sad Cafe; Don Mueller leaves his copy of The Mill on the Floss in the on-deck circle, etc. Leo Durocher gets the kid's signature on a contract by inviting him to dinner with Bernard Malamud and J.D. Salinger. This is just a wonderful riff on the actual circumstances of that remarkable Giants baseball season where everyone on the team (except maybe the bat boy) cautions the author that he is wrong in trying to see The Great Gatsby as allegory.
You Could Look It Up by James Thurber - In 1951 Bill Veeck sent 3 foot 7 inch Eddie Gaedel out to pinch hit for the St. Louis Browns. This was the shortest person ever to be in Major League Baseball. With a miniscule strike zone, Gaedel walked on four pitches. This is a prime example of life imitating art, since Thurber wrote his story a decade earlier.
Baseball Hattie by Damon Runyon - A minor work by Runyon about an arrogant rookie with lots of potential (maybe an early relative of Nuke LaLoosh) and his encounters with Hattie, a regular at the ballpark. It comes complete with the typical Runyon ending twist.
The Rollicking God by Nunnally Johnson – A somewhat amusing riff on a conventional reporter’s frustration with another sportswriter’s attempts to analogize baseball to elements of the fine arts. The tension comes in the pennant race when one star player starts to believe what this reporter is writing.
Bush League Hero by Edna Ferber – Another highbrow-lowbrow piece with the aristocrats enjoying being part of the hoi polloi at the ballpark. It is a tale of a girl, Ivy Kellar, home to the cornfields of Iowa from a big city finishing school and her romance with baseball and a player who looked great in a uniform.
Heffernan's photo-collages are drawn from Baseball's Hall of Fame....very nice, very shiny. The book is thin and expensive for its contents, but it does make a nice gift.
May 18, 2018
Actual title: Baseball Tales: Major League Writers on the National Pastime. Photographs by Terry Heffernan.
Anthology of five baseball short stories by W. P Kinsella, Nunnally Johnson, James Thurber, Edna Ferber and Damon Runyon. Introduction by Lawrence S. Ritter.
Good stories. Especially liked the Runyon story "had a curveball like the letter Q."
Anthology of five baseball short stories by W. P Kinsella, Nunnally Johnson, James Thurber, Edna Ferber and Damon Runyon. Introduction by Lawrence S. Ritter.
Good stories. Especially liked the Runyon story "had a curveball like the letter Q."
August 4, 2021
Five delightful short stories written by famous writers (including W. P. Kinsella, James Thurber, Damon Runyon, and Edna Ferber) about baseball. Very enjoyable. 3.5 stars!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews