Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Brooklyn and baseball

1955. Brooklyn. Dodgers. Dem Bums. Robinson. Giants. Yankees. New York. The Golden Age of baseball. The Cold War. Coney Island. Television... Philip Goldberg's This is Next Year (Ballentine: 1992) paints a rich tapestry before which his protagonist, eleven-year old Roger Stone walks. If you've read The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn, the character of Roger Stone is a conglomeration of the stereotypical Brooklynite. He lives and dies with his Dodgers; his passion for "dem Bums" never wanes. Roger narrates the 1955 season when the Dodgers made it to the World Series - lead by Snider, Robinson, Hodges and Reese - and finally beat the dreaded Yankees. This is Next Year is not just a baseball story, but a coming-of-age tale. Roger's story leads us through the streets and back alleys of Brooklyn during the mid-50s: the novel is filled with references to stickball games, egg creams and cherry cokes; everyone smoking cigarettes or having a hot dog at Nathan's, and schoolkids with earphones listening to baseball games during class.

Along with the scenery, we are introduced to Roger's family - his two brothers Hubbell and Hank("Round Man") - like Roger (after Rogers Hornsby) - named after stars of the age: Carl Hubbell, and Hank Greenberg. And there are his friends: Klinger and Iggy, as well as a host of other characters Roger goes to school and plays stickball with, and who generally hang out on the street corner arguing the merits of various ballplayers or the virtues of girls who they are acquainted. Apart from Roger's parents, the other adults - equally as engaging as Roger's school-age friends - are neighbors and shopkeepers from the immediate vicinity, but each have their supporting roles in the overall flow of the story.

And, then there's "The Thing": Roger's conception of fate. Named after the monster of the 1951 film, The Thing is Roger's method of reconciling why his beloved Dodgers continue to flail away at success, as well as his own 6th grade trials and tribulations. When something doesn't work out, it is because The Thing reared its fatalistic head.

At times, Goldberg seems to go a bit overboard with his narrative. If Next Year were a painting, it would be crowded with detail of Brooklyn and the events and culture of the mid-20th century. But perhaps this is the point - we are led through a tale, not by that 11 year-old boy, but by his aging memory. A memory that projects like a feature film: fade to black as the story begins and the entire tale is a movie flash-back projected onto the big screen. Instead of a backdrop larger than life (and mostly out of sight to a youngster), we have the scene set by someone who can look back and see his surroundings.

I remember that after I read this book for the first time - shortly after it was released in 1992 - I thought it was a very good story, full of tiny details; not entirely a baseball novel, but a story of a boy growing up in the shadow of bigger things. I would still recommend This is Next Year, but probably throw in a caveat or two about the overwhelming minutiae that accompanies the story. Overall, though, it is an enjoyable read. Goldberg initially promised that Next Year would be the first of a trilogy - presumably to follow along until the Dodgers left for Los Angeles, or so. But no sequels have ever appeared. Goldberg went on to a career in inspirational books. This is Next Year has been his only novel.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Birthday greetings

Robert Coover, author of one of the most acclaimed baseball novels, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. (Random House: 1968), celebrated his 79th birthday, today. Though to many of us, The Universal Baseball Association is one of the pinnacles of baseball literature, Coover is probably more well known (at least in wider circles) for The Public Burning (Viking: 1977), a satirical novel about the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case. His only other sports-related work was the novella: Whatever Happened to Gloomy Gus of the Chicago Bears (Simon & Schuster: 1987), which profered an alternated history of Richard Nixon - a man obsessed with football and sex. Coover is a professor of Literary Arts and Writer-in-Residence at Brown.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Characters behind the plate








Audry, Barlow Road Grade School Pioneers (Bat 6)
Chuck Arnold, New York Lions (The Last Great Season)
Waxahachie Beckland, Splendid Dominican Tourists (Brittle Innings)
"Blockade" Billy Blakely, New Jersey Titans (Blockade Billy)
Bubba Broadax, Smackover High School (Fielder's Choice)
Joe Louis Brown, Graceville Oilers (Long Gone)
Joe Buck Cartwell, Arkansas Reds (The Dixie Association)
Tim Connell, Lions (Chance)
Chico Hernandez, Veracruz Blues (Veracruz Blues)
Dean Larson, Washington Memorials (The Spring Habit)
Boon Lions, Oxford Fury (The Dixie Association)
Bingo Long, All-Stars (The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings)
Phil Nagle, Boston Blues (Conduct of the Game)
Bruce Pearson, New York Mammoths (The Southpaw)
Hothead Ptah, Rupert Mundys (The Great American Novel)
Petashne, Wichita Wraith (Babe Ruth Caught in a Snowstorm)
"Turkey" Sloan, Highbridge Hellbenders (Brittle Innings)
Earl Smith, Chicago Blades (Conduct of the Game)
Matty Sternweiss, St. Louis Browns (Big League Dreams)
Tootie, Bear Creek Grade School Ridgers (Bat 6)
Hank West, Brooklyn Dodgers (World Series)