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September 22, 2004

The Last Few Days

Busy Busy Busy

I know, sounds like Terry Thomas, doesn't it?

Anyway, work has been keeping me on the go. Lots of projects have picked up steam and I've been caught up in administrative tasks, most of which I truly enjoy doing (and miss from my previous time at DC).

The projects are good to work on and I think will turn out to be successful but we'll talk about them later.

Also, been catching up on some comics reading, finished Robert B. Parker's Double Play which was okay but ultimately disappointing because I expected it to be more about Jackie Robinson's integration into Major League Baseball (as promised by the reviewers) than it turned out to be.

Coolness

An editor I’ve wanted to work with for a while now just called to see if I was still interested in pitching a story to an anthology he was working on. I thought this option, last discussed with him a while back, had vanished. Apparently not. We’ll talk in depth on Friday and see if magic happens. I consider this a wonderful opportunity and hope I don’t blow it.

Talking Baseball

Last year I attended a four session talk sponsored by the Fairfield Public Library about baseball. I had read most of the books, liked them, and thought it would make for a good outing. Our host is baseball historian and author Michael J. Bielawa, who has written extensively about Connecticut baseball, and he’s engaging, well prepared and fun to chat with.

Last night, a new series of four talks kicked off and this time around the theme is “Mysticism, Fantasy and Larger than Life: Baseball in America & Literature.” A rather high-falutin’ title but baseball fiction tends to allow for the mystical. After all, look at the popularity of Field of Dreams. Again, I had read three of the four books under discussion so Deb and Robbie egged me into going back (as opposed to giving in to inertia).

Michael was as charming as last time and as we went around the room, the thirty or so of us introduced ourselves and briefly covered our reason for being there. Many were returnees and at least a few came because they heard last time was so enjoyable. One old-timer, Joel, talked about two others who were eagerly looking forward to the session but both passed away over the summer. One in particular I remember chatting with at last year’s talks; a knowledgeable guy with great memories about the Brooklyn Dodgers games he saw as a kid and the greats he actually watched play, including Babe Ruth. Their absence was properly noted.

We kicked off with Pete Hamill’s wonderful Snow in August, which I recommend to anyone regardless of your interest in the National Pastime. As we discussed it. I was struck by the themes uncovered that I never paused to notice as I read it. As we dissected it, I was taken with the structure (the writer in me studying the form) and how much of a fairy tale it is and the use of imagery and, more importantly, language. Michael Devlin’s learning of Yiddish opened up a mystical realm that his Irish Catholic upbringing had failed to do while the Rabbi learned the language of America, baseball, and was able to more fully integrate himself in society, something the Polish immigrant had yet to accomplish. Wonderful stuff.

Neat we tackle W.P. Kinsella’s The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, a book I was told I’d love but found too far-fetched. I’ll be curious to see what I may have missed.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at September 22, 2004 11:30 AM

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Comments

Snow in August is a wonderful book. The town of Brookline chose it to kick off our first "Brookline Reads" program in 2004. If you like Hamill in general, I very much recommend his novel Forever and his memoir A Drinking Life.

Posted by: Michael A. Burstein [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 22, 2004 11:48 AM

I loved Forever and want Deb to read it. Again, I can recommend it.

Posted by: bobgreenberger at September 22, 2004 02:50 PM

Actually, when I think of "Busy, busy, busy," I think of the magician, from the Frosty the Snowman animated episode, as he runs away in glee.

Posted by: John S. Drew at September 23, 2004 05:24 AM

Re "Busy, busy, busy": John has it. The actor's name is Billy de Wolfe, and he was all over television in the late sixties playing essentially the same part.

Posted by: Daniel Taylor at September 25, 2004 10:31 AM