I'd always imagined that the first post would be on Opening Day, but like many things we want to do that plan got pushed back (and back, and back...) Anyway, this time of summer - the period around the All-Star Game and the annual Hall of Fame inductions at Cooperstown - is just as appropriate, I suppose. This is a project I've been considering for quite a while. Baseball fiction has a long history as a genre, with many of its titles featured prominently as works of literature (Malamud's The Natural and The Celebrant, by Eric Greenberg, are two that quickly come to mind).
A little background about me is needed, I think. I was not a literature major - but do hold a Masters in Library Science, if that means anything. But I am a big fan of the game and its history. I do a fair amount of reading during the course of the year, primarily fiction with some history and biographical pieces added along the way. I've been reading (and accumulating a good-sized library of) baseball fiction for the past twenty-five years, or so.
To date, I've read a little over ninety titles in this genre. I typically read five or six baseball novels between April and October each year which, not coincidentally, corresponds with the baseball season. The first story I recall reading was Donald Honig's The Last Great Season (1979). I remember checking this out from the local library; it's a big book (over 400 pages) and is the story of the New York Lions, a quintessential losing team reminiscent of the early Boston Braves, St. Louis Browns, or today's Pirates or Orioles. The novel focuses on the Lions as they head toward the 1942 season (the "last season" before most of baseball's stars would have switched from flannels to khaki). In time, I'm sure I'll provide more detailed thoughts on baseball fiction, including my reviews of the books I've read or am reading, the authors who wrote them, and what others have had to say about them. But I'm sure there'll be other items of interest interspersed here and there as I go along. I hope you enjoy.
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