Taking the Field: The Best of Baseball Fiction

Jere D. Turner is Adult Collections Co-ordinator at the Regina Public
Library in Saskatchewan.

Taking the Field is an appealing collection of baseball fiction. Fans
and nonfans alike will appreciate the variety of writing styles that
cover a span of time from the early twentieth century to the near
future. And while all the stories have some relationship to the game, it
is the effects of baseball on the people’s lives that is the heart of
this book.

“Alibi Ike,” by Ring Lardner, and “Baseball Hattie,” by Damon
Runyon, are two period pieces that fans of baseball’s early years will
like. At the other end of the time spectrum sits “October 1961,” by
George Bowering. This science fiction tale involves time travel, and a
plot to kill Roger Maris in an attempt to change baseball history.

My favorite here is “The Thrill of the Grass,” by W.O. Kinsella, a
heart-warming tale of the silent majority of the baseball world that
leaves no doubt about their feelings toward artificial turf. Close
second and third choices are “The Greatest Slump of All Time,” by
David Carkeet, and “Playing Ball on Hampstead Heath,” by Mordecai
Richler. The first is a convincingly told tale of the virus-like effects
of depression on a team and how they handle it. The second is the tale
of a regular Sunday game of “recreational” softball. This story is
at once funny and serious as the players plot, scheme, and worry about
their relationships with fellow players and with the onlookers (who
include ex-wives and other acquaintances).

All in all a good, wide-ranging collection about the many aspects of
the world of baseball and its fans.