Review: The Last Best League

This review appeared on the Sports Literature Association Web site in August, 2004.

The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream, by Jim Collins. Da Capo, 2004. 288pp. $24.00 (cloth), ISBN 0738209015.

Reviewed by Ron Kaplan

The ballplayers on the Chatham As of the Cape Cod League are on the cusp. All of them, up to this point, have enjoyed great success, whether in high school, college or other amateur leagues. But this is “the last best league” and it is an honor just to be invited. For many, this is the final season to fine-tune their skills before hopefully moving to the professional ranks. Few are called, fewer are chosen.

The parallels between The Last Best League and the 2002 movie Summer Catch are undeniable, although the author claims his concept came first. These are young men barely out of high school, testing themselves against a higher class of pitchers or batters. They must also be content with the almost inevitable drop-off that converting to wooden bats brings, since most, if not all, are used to the power and confidence metal bats offer. They are in for a rude awakening.

The concept of focusing on one team for a single season is not new, but Collins, a former editor of Yankee Magazine, seems to humanize his subjects more than most. The reader sees the players as Jekylls and Hydes, on and off the field, dealing with matters some would consider mundane, but for whom such issues as balancing a checkbook and buying food is a new experience.

The Last Best League also considers the people behind the scenes, the men and women who open up their homes to these strangers, who give them jobs, who run the leagues, all out of a love for the game, since financial remuneration is practically nonexistent.
As the summer comes to a close, TLBL serves as a reminder of old-tyme America: small towns, Fourth of July parades, Mom and pop stores, and apple-pie.