The end of baseball as we knew it

Joining similar works such as Man on Spikes and Chance, there is Season's End (Little, Brown & Co: 1992), by Tom Grimes. Like the aforementioned novels, Season's End is a career study of a star player. In the case of Season's End, the player is infielder Mike Williams: the "best pure singles hitter", ever. Grimes re-tells Williams while navigating through the tumultuous period in baseball from the mid-1970s to the beginning of the 1980s. When we are introduced to Williams we find him re-signing his contract just as the reserve clause is overturned in Federal Court. From this point on Williams' life in baseball changes dramatically. As Williams describes his ordeals with trying to earn what he's worth, struggling through slumps, the demands from his team, his agent, and his family, we are also cast back to stories of where Williams came from and how he ended up in the situation he finds himself.

Mike Williams is a complicated character. On one hand he is a rather simple individual, only wanting to play baseball his way: one base hit at a time. He appreciates the money he receives, but does not exhibit the level of greed others have (or wish Williams to possess). But Williams is also very introspective. He sees the beauty of the game; that it was timeless and could conceivably go on forever. And he sees through the various games both his agent and team owner play to one-up each other over salary and public relations. He also displays moments of weakness in regards to women and other vices, yet recognizes the self-destructive nature of his actions.

While Season's End is about the life and times of a major league ballplayer, it is equally a tale of how the end of the reserve clause and the emergence of free agency affected the game of baseball. Agents moved to the forefront and players became grossly overpaid as owners were faced with bidding against each other. And, with higher salaries came demands by the fans to see perfection. As Williams, himself, puts it: "The money, the greed, the insatiable appetite of the fans -- they became larger than the game, the field ceasing to be a sanctuary and become, instead, a place to dwell on our bitterness and frustration." In effect, baseball as Williams knew it, was over.