Young Razzle

Brooklyn Dodgers #7

by John R. Tunis

A rookie second baseman starts to work his way up to the majors, meeting his father, whom he has hated since he deserted his mother for baseball years ago, on the way down from a great pitching career.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

John Roberts Tunis "the 'inventor' of the modern sports story",was an American writer and broadcaster. Known for his juvenile sports novels, Tunis also wrote short stories and non-fiction, including a weekly sports column for the New Yorker magazine. As a commentator Tunis was part of the first trans-Atlantic sports cast and the first broadcast of the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament to the United States.

After graduating from Harvard and serving in the Army during World War I, Tunis began his writing career freelancing for American sports magazines while playing tennis in the Rivera. For the next two decades he wrote short stories and articles about sports and education for magazines including Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.

Tunis' work often protested the increasing professionalization of sports in America. He believed that amateur participation in sports taught values important for good citizenship like perseverance, fair play and equality, and that the emphasis on professional sports was turning America into a country of spectators. His sports books also tackled current social issues such as antisemitism and racial equality.

Though Tunis never considered himself a children's writer, all but one of his twenty-four books were published for juveniles; their success helped create the juvenile fiction book market in the 1940s. Books like Iron Duke (1938), All American (1942) and Keystone Kids (1943) were well received by readers and critics. Iron Duke received the New York Herald Tribune Spring Book Festival Award for best juvenile novel and was named a The Horn Book Magazine Best Book. The Child Study Association of America gave its Golden Scroll Award to Keystone Kids.

In his tribute to the writer, Bernard Hayes said "Tunis has probably made good readers of millions of young people." His success with the juvenile audience helped change the publishing industry. Along with writers like Howard Pease, his books demonstrated to publishers that there was money to be made in targeting books for teenagers. His influence went beyond simply creating a market for young adult books. "In his attempt to link sports with the communities in which they are played, he broached some highly significant issues in the literature written for and about America's youth", according to John S. Simmons in John R. Tunis and the Sports Novels for Adolescents: A Little Ahead of His Time. Tunis never considered himself a writer of boys' books, insisting his stories could be read and enjoyed by adults. He felt that the word "juvenile" was an "odious... product of a merchandising age". Despite his dislike of the term, Tunis' novels helped create and shape the juvenile fiction book market.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sequentially, this book is later in the series of novels written by Tunis that feature players of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The great and flamboyant Razzle Nugent has reached the age of forty and so his pitches don’t have the zip they once did. Joe Nugent is Razzle’s son and a good ballplayer in his own right. Joe’s mother has recently died after raising Joe all by herself, never receiving assistance from Razzle. Joe has been in contact with a scout and has been given an opportunity to attend a baseball minor league training camp. He dislikes his father, so reacts quite negatively to being tagged as “Young Razzle.”
Joe rises through the levels of the minor leagues quickly and reaches the major leagues as a New York Yankee while Razzle is still playing. Since Razzle is overweight and out of shape, Joe wins their first confrontation where Razzle is pitching. The humiliation is too much for Razzle and he engages in a crash program to slim down and strengthen his body.
In the following year, Razzle is called back to the Dodgers and pitches very well. Since Razzle pitches for the National League Dodgers while Joe plays for the American League Yankees, the only way they can meet is in the World Series. The Yankees win the pennant very early while the Dodgers must fight down to the wire. Therefore, Razzle and Joe will be meeting as adversaries in the World Series.
The competition between the teams is intense and when Razzle and Joe face each other, neither one backs down. Despite being encouraged to give his father a chance, Joe refuses to do so, leading to a second line of tension in the World Series. In the end, only one can be on the championship team, but both men manage to rise above the bitterness and realize that the problems between them are not all Razzle’s fault.
While this is a sports book, the strong plotline of the wife and son abandoned by a famous father provides an opportunity for human interest to take equal precedence to sports. Given the length and depth of their estrangement, it is likely the only way to overcome it would be to meet on the playing field and each one gives it his all. The excellent handling of this aspect of a father-son relationship is what makes this book one of Tunis’ best.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kind of hard to read - not because it was actually difficult but because the main character was understandably bitter for most of the story. Also because it's one of those stories where someone sympathetic has to lose, no matter how things come out.