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Until the End of the Ninth
There are moments in baseball that sparkle with magic. And moments that break our hearts. And then there was the moment in 1946 when one minor league baseball team's hope for magical moments came crashing to a fiery end. That season began like seasons begin, except this time even more sweetly. It was the first season right after World War II, with men returning from foxholes to dugouts, back to a game that had been put on hold, back to their dreams of the Big Leagues. Some of those men found their way to Spokane, Washington to play for the minor league club there. They were special men. They knew how to be a team and they knew how to win, especially in the waning moments of the ninth, when all that seemed lost could be won if they just imagined it. They knew how to play ball as it was meant to be played. What they did not know was how to die too young. That, they had to learn. What if the earth knew that something was about to happen and tried to prepare for it by calling to it a soul for help? A soul with a joyful heart, whose story paralleled the story of these men...who knew, as they did, what it meant to be in a war, to watch a friend die, to strive in every moment even as the moments waned, to believe in a destiny, to feel its arrival...who knew, as they would, how to die too young, by fire, as destiny arrived.
192 pages, Paperback
First published May 30, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 21, 2017
Another gem I found in the $1.00 bin at the grocery store.
Until the End of the Ninth by Beth Mary Bollinger is a story of a minor league baseball team from Spokane, Washington in the summer of 1946.
You are introduced to the players of the Spokane Indians, the home town crowd, the newspaper reporters, the team owners … all in a folksy, friendly way that makes it easy to read. I love baseball and I was about to settle down to a story that was more then the game - it was about life and a person’s destiny.
What began ad a retelling of the fateful summer in Spokane turned into something much more. Something I was not expecting.
You see this is not only a story of a baseball team, but a story of men who have survived the hell of war only to be thrust into it one more time.
Look - you can read the other blurbs and they’ll give away the story. Let me just say I was moved by this story. I was absolutely moved to tears.
It’s a short read - not even 200 pages - but it’s one of the most memorable books I have ever read.
Until the End of the Ninth by Beth Mary Bollinger is a story of a minor league baseball team from Spokane, Washington in the summer of 1946.
You are introduced to the players of the Spokane Indians, the home town crowd, the newspaper reporters, the team owners … all in a folksy, friendly way that makes it easy to read. I love baseball and I was about to settle down to a story that was more then the game - it was about life and a person’s destiny.
What began ad a retelling of the fateful summer in Spokane turned into something much more. Something I was not expecting.
You see this is not only a story of a baseball team, but a story of men who have survived the hell of war only to be thrust into it one more time.
Look - you can read the other blurbs and they’ll give away the story. Let me just say I was moved by this story. I was absolutely moved to tears.
It’s a short read - not even 200 pages - but it’s one of the most memorable books I have ever read.
April 22, 2018
"As each teammate lived, he kept alive the hearts of the men who had died. And as each teammate died, his heart became a part of the hearts of those who had gone before. "
There is a nostalgia that surrounds the earlier years of Baseball that stresses the virtues of courage, endurance, strength and loyalty. The created ideology, or myths, by which we have given meaning to the game of Baseball is well represented in this story about group of men that had survived WWII, came back home, formed a team and a bond with the people of Spokane Washington .It was their youth, and the influence of baseball that molded their spirit and shaped their destiny. In telling their story the author starts each chapter with the story of Joan of Arc who also had the virtues of courage, endurance, strength and loyalty .
There is a nostalgia that surrounds the earlier years of Baseball that stresses the virtues of courage, endurance, strength and loyalty. The created ideology, or myths, by which we have given meaning to the game of Baseball is well represented in this story about group of men that had survived WWII, came back home, formed a team and a bond with the people of Spokane Washington .It was their youth, and the influence of baseball that molded their spirit and shaped their destiny. In telling their story the author starts each chapter with the story of Joan of Arc who also had the virtues of courage, endurance, strength and loyalty .
February 23, 2024
DNF’d. I tried really hard to push through and finish but it was just not an enjoyable book to read. Too choppy and so many characters. I couldn’t connect to anyone.
January 22, 2016
This was a VERY strange book. I have been reading books that mention my home town, Wenatchee, Washington, and the connection here was a one-time manager of the Spokane Indians minor league baseball team, although it turns out that he had recently lived in Wenatchee but did not grow up here.
The book is mainly about a horrible bus crash on Washington's Snoqualmie Pass in 1946 which claimed the lives of 9 of the players (and the manager, Mel Cole).
The author's storytelling style was nearly impossible for me to get used to. She begins every chapter with a passage about Joan of Arc (?), then mixed in with the sections about the baseball team's season, once the accident happened she brings back dead characters talking to the survivors and also to the other dead characters. Huh? I'm throwing her out of the game.
**#9 of 120 books pledged to read/review during 2016**
The book is mainly about a horrible bus crash on Washington's Snoqualmie Pass in 1946 which claimed the lives of 9 of the players (and the manager, Mel Cole).
The author's storytelling style was nearly impossible for me to get used to. She begins every chapter with a passage about Joan of Arc (?), then mixed in with the sections about the baseball team's season, once the accident happened she brings back dead characters talking to the survivors and also to the other dead characters. Huh? I'm throwing her out of the game.
**#9 of 120 books pledged to read/review during 2016**
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews