#852 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday February 7)
Good morning,
Continuing the weekly lists of books (to date: 10 weeks of the decades, our book club books, and dystopian books). Today, Sports and Baseball books:
SPORTS BOOKS
Sports have a way of mirroring what is going on in society at large. They tend to serve as microcosms of the world outside of the realm of competition. Often, what happens is reflective of major events—Jesse Owens and the 1932 Olympics, the 1972 Munich massacre, Jackie Robinson breaking into the major leagues, Jim Bouton’s observations about the labor problems in baseball. Here are a few great books in this genre:
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown. As much a novel as a history. The Olympics themselves weren’t earth-shattering, but the book paints a picture of the world in the midst of the rise of Nazism and the days before the war broke out. Great personal interest. One might read this in tandem with Unbroken.
Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series, by Eliot Asinof. About an era that includes gamblers and the hardscrabble teens.
The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever, by Mark Frost. About a match between two pros and two amateurs that began with a bet.
Levels of the Game, by John McPhee. About the 1968 U.S. Open. I don’t really follow tennis it—but it’s by the great John McPhee (of the New Yorker and Annals of the Former World fame).
Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand. A classic that mustn’t be missed. She also wrote the powerful Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resistance and Redemption, the story of Louis Zamperini (athlete, war hero, USC alumnus). That she wrote these books from her own home, often unable to get out of bed due to chronic fatigue syndrome, is a remarkable in and of itself.
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, by H.G. Bissinger. The story of an Odessa, Texas football team and its season chasing the Texas state championship. Made into a movie that was great and a TV series that was even greater. Life in Texas, practically a foreign country, with the small town focus on the local team.
The Blind Side, by Michael Lewis. Quite literally, the story of advances in professional football focused in large measure over the appreciation of protecting a quarterback’s “blind side.” Think about it. A right handed quarterback typically turns his back toward his left as he looks to pass. The left tackle becomes, therefore, an important protector. This football story incorporates the inspirational story of Michael Oher and his achieving the near impossible. Made into an excellent movie.
Ali: A Life, by Jonathan Eig. He was the greatest.
BASEBALL BOOKS
Baseball, besides being a family bonding experience and part of our culture for over 150 years, also has been reflective of events in the world outside the ballpark. The Dodgers’ breaking the color barrier when Jackie Robinson joined the team in Brooklyn is a part of American history. A day honoring him is observed each April 15, when his number 42 is donned by every player, recalling a historic event that transcends baseball.
For the seminal story of Baseball’s interconnection with American psyche and social fabric, watch Baseball, the nine-part Ken Burns documentary. And if you want some great baseball reading, consider the following, all books ostensibly about baseball but also evocative of the time and place (exclusive of a few books tied to a specific year, which will be included in an upcoming Musing):
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, by Jane Leavy. Learn about arguably the greatest lefty (sorry Kershaw and Carlton fans), the hero who missed the first game of the World Series in honor of Yom Kippur, the reclusive Dodger legend, who boasts the greatest legacy over one of the shortest careers. Just reading about the beating his arm took starting every fourth day, with 137 complete games in his career, and the rehab of his discolored, swelled arm after every game is eye-opening. The book does a great job of painting a picture of the era of his career, in the late 50s and early 60s. Leavy’s prose is brilliant. If you like this, then also try The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, another period-focused story of an enigmatic, larger than life player, also by Ms. Leavy.
The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn. A loving tribute to the Brooklyn Dodgers, who until 1955 were the perennial National League victors and also-rans to the Yankees. The Ebbets Field days saw characters like Roy Campanella, Duke Snyder, Pee Wee Reese, and Jackie Robinson. Love exudes from each page.
October 1964, by David Halberstam. A picture of an era, with the last “big season” of a Yankee dynasty that stretched back to the 1920s with only intermittent droughts. The series was against the Lou Brock and Bob Gibson Cardinals. Halberstam brings his usual excellent narrative style and attention to detail.
Game Six, by Mark Frost. The story of the 1975 World Series, designated #2 of all time by ESPN. I remember that series like it was yesterday. Who wasn’t thrilled by Carlton Fisk’s game winner (but one can’t forget the Bernie Carbo set-up to get to extra innings). The 1975 Reds, arguably was one of the best teams ever fielded, with four future Hall of Famers (should be five when Pete Rose finally makes it). What a game and series.
The Natural, by Bernard Malamud. From the Wikipedia entry: “The story follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked after being shot by a woman whose motivation remains mysterious. The story mostly concerns his attempts to return to baseball later in life, when he plays for the fictional New York Knights with his self-made bat ‘Wonderboy.’” The book is great and, defying the odds, the movie is as good (albeit with a somewhat different ending). Magical and mystical, good and evil, returning to youth late in life, and the timelessness of love and baseball.
Shoeless Joe, by W.J. Kinsella. The book that was adapted as the movie Field of Dreams. A solid read (albeit not achieving the literary level of Bernard Malamud). Better than the movie—magic realism and wonder. The guy who the protagonist seeks to “ease his pain” is the novelist J.D. Salinger (making far more sense than the fictional character in the movie). According to the Philadelphia Inquirer: "not so much about baseball as it's about dreams, magic, life, and what is quintessentially American."
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis. Billy Beane. The Oakland As and “playing the game” a different way—with statistics and probabilities to turn around a small market team. The effect of turning away from the traditional scouting methods and toward metrics changed the game forever. Turned into a great movie with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.
Summer of '49, by David Halberstam. You will never get me not to love a Halberstam book. In the words of the MLB, the book “presents the idea of baseball as a microcosm of society at the time. David Halberstam places the Yankees-Red Sox American League pennant race and the Joe DiMaggio-Ted Williams rivalry in the context of post-World War II America.” Halberstam has a keen eye for detail and for historic and societal context. A great book.
Ball Four, by Jim Bouton, about the 1969 season. Bouton made a bigger splash as a writer than as a baseball player. Bouton’s irreverent take on his life in baseball and the need for a collective bargaining agreement that changed the face of the game.
Then there are Only the Ball Was White (the Negro Leagues), Babe (Roger Cramer’s definitive biography of arguably the greatest player of all time), The Glory of Their Times (an oral history of players from the early days), and so many others.
Have a great day,
Glenn