Joy in Mudville: The Big Book of Baseball Humor

by Dick Schaap

A comic lineup of stories, essays, cartoons, and more, from Lardner and Runyon to Philip Roth, Charles Addams to Charles Schulz, plus dozens of other funny fans. "The best baseball book of the season." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review.

B & W photographs and illustrations throughout.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Fiction

424 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1992

About the author

Richard Jay Schaap was an American sportswriter, broadcaster, and author.

Reviews

[Bryan Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extensive hodge-podge of humorous writing (and cartoons) about the national pastime. Entries range from old saws like “Casey at the Bat” and Thurber’s legendary tale of a little person batter to more contemporary jabs at the game and those who get paid a lot to play it. You probably have to already love the game to get most of the jokes here, but if you do then it’s worth a read.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is subtitled THE BIG BOOK OF BASEBALL HUMOR and that tells you pretty much what you will find in between the covers. Included are stories, songs, photos, comics and brief quotes. One of my favorite stories was entitled END OF THE SEASON chronicling a part of the Mets 1965 season. Here is a sample, “The Mets have reached the crucial stage of their current road trip. If they can get through Houston without suffering a victory, they stand a good chance to come home next week possessing a 16-game losing streak.
This would put them within one game of their all-time losing streak of 17 games, which was one of the most exciting accomplishments of their maiden 1962 season.” (pg. 147)

Or how about this quote from former pitcher Tug McGraw who when asked whether he preferred grass or artificial turf replied, “I don’t know. I never smoked artificial turf.” (pg.223) If you are a baseball fan looking for some smiles, smirks and a few good laughs JOY IN MUDVILLE will fill the bill.

[David Blankenship · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are many better baseball anthologies out there. This one is far too New York-centric, and many selections simply are not good. Who needs a half-dozen derivative versions of 'Casey at the Bat'?