Short (baseball) stories from Symphony Space, Part 1

Thanks to the powers that be for producing two sessions of top notch baseball stories read at Manhattan’s Symphony Space. The stories in this section, which aired on Sept. 28, 2007 by Public Radio International, include:

James T. Farrell, “My Grandmother Goes to Comiskey Park,” read by John Shea (from My Baseball Diary, Southern Illinois University Press), a nostalgic tale of a young boy and his well-meaning grandma in the early 20th century.
Philip Roth, Selection from Portnoy’s Complaint, read by Isaiah Sheffer (from Portnoy’s Complaint, Vintage).
Rolfe Humphries, “Polo Grounds,” read by David Strathairn (collected in Baseball: A Literary Anthology, Library of America). Another version read by Fritz Weaver appears on a subsequent program of short baseball fiction. Personally, I prefer the younger Straithairn’s redndition, perhaps because I can picture him as Eddie Ciccotte in the movie version of Eight Men Out.
Yusef Komunyakaa, “Glory,” read by Isaiah Sheffer (from “Magic City” in Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems, Wesleyan University Press).
W.P. Kinsella, “The Thrill of the Grass,” read by John Shea (from The Thrill of the Grass, Penguin). Nicely done.
A. Bartlett Giamatti, “The Green Fields of the Mind,” read by the author (collected in A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti, edited by Kenneth S. Robson Algonquin Books). The late commissioner (and former president of Yale) has a great voice for this essay.