Synopses & Reviews
A
New York Times Notable Book
Roger Angell's explorations of the summer game are built on acute observation and joyful participation, conveyed in a prose style as admired as Ted Williams's swing. Angell on Fenway Park in another wild September, on Bob Gibson brooding in retirement, on Tom Seaver in mid-windup, on the abysmal early and recent Mets, on a scout at work in back-country Kentucky, on Pete Rose and Willie Mays and Pedro Martinez, on the astounding Barry Bonds at Pac Bell Park, and more, carry us through the arc of the seasons with refreshed understanding and pleasure. This new selection represents Angell's prime writings, short and long, from spring training in 1962 to the explosive World Series of 2002.
"Angell is the best baseball essayist around. His relaxed prose glides across the page with a confident grace that most writers-let alone baseball writers-would kill for."-Chicago Tribune
Roger Angell is a writer and fiction editor with the New Yorker. His baseball books include The Summer Game, Five Seasons, Late Innings, Season Ticket, Once More Around the Park, and A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone. He lives in New York.
Review
"No one writes more evocatively about the craft and magic of baseball than Roger Angell." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review
"Angell writes with economical precision, nailing observations as a pitcher does corners." Sports Illustrated
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"Roger Angell is the best baseball writer of our time maybe ever." Newsweek
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"No other sport has been so well served by any other writer." Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World
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"The Babe Ruth of baseball writers." The Boston Globe
Synopsis
Roger Angell has been writing about baseball for more than forty years . . . and for my money he's the best there is at it," says novelist Richard Ford in his introduction to Game Time. Angell's famous explorations of the summer game are built on acute observation and joyful participation, conveyed in a prose style as admired and envied as Ted Williams's swing. Angell on Fenway Park in September, on Bob Gibson brooding in retirement, on Tom Seaver in mid-windup, on the abysmal early and recent Mets, on a scout at work in backcountry Kentucky, on Pete Rose and Willie Mays and Pedro Martinez, on the astounding Barry Bonds at Pac Bell Park, and more, carry us through the arc of the season with refreshed understanding and pleasure. This collection represents Angell's best writings, from spring training in 1962 to the explosive World Series of 2002.
About the Author
Roger Angell joined
The New Yorker as senior fiction editor in 1962. Roger Angell's celebrated baseball books include
The Summer Game,
Five Seasons, Late Innings,
Season Ticket,
Once More Around the Park, and
A Pitcher's Story. Angell has also authored
The Stone Arbor (stories) as well as
A Day in the Life of Roger Angell and was the editor of the collection
Nothing But You: Love Stories from the New Yorker.
Steve Kettmann covered the Oakland A's for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1994 to 1998, and has also written on sports for the New York Times, the New Republic and Salon.com. He was cited in Best American Sports Writing 2001 and 2002. A finalist for the 2002 Online Journalism Award in commentary, he lives in Berlin.
The author of five novels and two collections of stories, Richard Ford was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Independence Day, the first book to win both prizes. In 2001 he received the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in short fiction. His other works include The Sportswriter and A Multitude of Sins.
Table of Contents
Introduction by Richard Ford ... vii
Preface ... xv
SPRING
The Old Folks Behind Home... 3
Sunny Side of the Street... 16
Easy Lessons... 34
Takes: Waltz of the Geezers... 52
Put Me In, Coach... 57
Takes: Digging Up Willie... 82
For Openers... 87
Takes: Pride... 95
Let Go, Mets... 97
SUMMER
Early Innings... 113
The Companions of the Game... 132
Scout... 150
Distance... 175
The Web of the Game... 213
Takes: Penmen... 235
Takes: Payback... 239
Wings of Fire... 241
The Bard in the Booth... 254
Style... 266
Takes: Three Petes... 282
FALL
Takes: Jacksonian... 291
Blue Collar... 296
Takes: The Confines... 312
Ninety Feet... 319
One for the Good Guys... 335
Legends of the Fens... 351
Can You Believe It?... 365
Takes: The Purist... 380
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang... 383