Boring, boring baseball
As well as being a passionate baseball fan, I'm also an avid reader, and I'm always delighted when these two passions converge and I discover a great baseball book.
Last night, having finished the book I've been reading recently and not wanting to make a start on the one I plan to read next, I thought I would have a kind of baseball interlude, so I went to my bookshelf and picked out Arnold Hano's A Day In The Bleachers.
For those who don't know the book, it's an account of the opening game of the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians. It is, of course, a game that is best known for "The Catch" - Willie Mays' legendary over-the-shoulder grab - but Hano's book is much more than just a record of what went on on the field - he describes the sights and sounds of the Polo Grounds on that day. It's very much of a specific time and place, but it's a fantastic book.
The account of the game is fascinating, but in my opinion Hano is at his best when he goes beyond the specific details of that one game and writes about basbeall in general. When faced with friends who find baseball games long and boring, I've often tried to explain the appeal of the rhythm of the game and its intrinsic beauty, but I don't always have the right words. Hano has them:
"The eight Giant shots had now been reduced to seven and the game was entering that lull period which some people find boring but which I find lengthens the buildup before the final crackling climax or climaxes. The longer and more quiescent the lull, the more emphatic seem the climaxes; it is the tightening of the screw, the technique of suspense that is stamped so firmly on all Hitchcock films.
Of course, sometimes the lull extends too far, and the last out has been recorded before any crackling climax can occur. We have then watched what amounts to a dull game. But even within the structure of a dull game, there is so much to be seen - the pitching, the unfolding of defenxive patterns, the mobility and unbelievable coordination of a double play - that most lovely of all defensive feats of athletic collaboration. Just the sight of a routine grounder to shortstop is exciting. The ball must be played perfectly - not just pretty well, but perfectly - otherwise a swift runner will have an infield hit. The moving to the ball, the scoop, the set position, the throw - and the first baseman's stretch into the diamond, all this must be executed with a minimum of activity and cover a minimum of time. And nine innings full of such stuff! Routine is surely the wrong word, and so is dull."
Classic stuff...
Last night, having finished the book I've been reading recently and not wanting to make a start on the one I plan to read next, I thought I would have a kind of baseball interlude, so I went to my bookshelf and picked out Arnold Hano's A Day In The Bleachers.
For those who don't know the book, it's an account of the opening game of the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians. It is, of course, a game that is best known for "The Catch" - Willie Mays' legendary over-the-shoulder grab - but Hano's book is much more than just a record of what went on on the field - he describes the sights and sounds of the Polo Grounds on that day. It's very much of a specific time and place, but it's a fantastic book.
The account of the game is fascinating, but in my opinion Hano is at his best when he goes beyond the specific details of that one game and writes about basbeall in general. When faced with friends who find baseball games long and boring, I've often tried to explain the appeal of the rhythm of the game and its intrinsic beauty, but I don't always have the right words. Hano has them:
"The eight Giant shots had now been reduced to seven and the game was entering that lull period which some people find boring but which I find lengthens the buildup before the final crackling climax or climaxes. The longer and more quiescent the lull, the more emphatic seem the climaxes; it is the tightening of the screw, the technique of suspense that is stamped so firmly on all Hitchcock films.
Of course, sometimes the lull extends too far, and the last out has been recorded before any crackling climax can occur. We have then watched what amounts to a dull game. But even within the structure of a dull game, there is so much to be seen - the pitching, the unfolding of defenxive patterns, the mobility and unbelievable coordination of a double play - that most lovely of all defensive feats of athletic collaboration. Just the sight of a routine grounder to shortstop is exciting. The ball must be played perfectly - not just pretty well, but perfectly - otherwise a swift runner will have an infield hit. The moving to the ball, the scoop, the set position, the throw - and the first baseman's stretch into the diamond, all this must be executed with a minimum of activity and cover a minimum of time. And nine innings full of such stuff! Routine is surely the wrong word, and so is dull."
Classic stuff...
posted by Iain at
09:05
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