Defining the National Pastime
In a word, Baseball is… great fun. Okay, so that’s two words, so sue me. The small, square paperback contains the wisdom of the ages when it comes to distilling the history of the game into a few sentences.
There are plenty of larger books of baseball quotes, but none match the feel of diversity I sense herein. You will find definitions from Robert Frost a few pages away from Thomas Edison. You have ballplayers, presidents, writers, filmmakers, researchers all giving their thoughts on the subject. And Jacques Barzun is here too, although not — given the parameters — with his standard (and overrepeated) line about the hearts and minds of Americans.
One of the things for which I’m even more grateful is that Baseball is… opens up a reading world of materials with which I was unfamiliar, whether they’re books I haven’t read yet or a wide range of magazines covering many non-sports disciplines.
Paul Dickson has produced a nice package to strengthen his place in the baseball literary world, which already includes such important works as The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (now in its third edition)
And with Father’s Day right around the corner, this would make for a welcome (and inexpensive) gift anyone can afford.
is available on Amazon.com,
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I haven’t yet read this book, though I intend to do so soon … I’ve certainly enjoyed Dickson’s “Hidden Language of Baseball” and recently quoted passages from his “Baseball Dictionary” (“sacrifice,” 2nd edition). This new title is brilliant. In fact, I’m wondering if at any point – perhaps at the book’s conclusion? – Dickson allows his title to speak for itself as a succinct declarative sentence that eloquently sums everything up with its simple subject and verb: Baseball is.
I haven’t yet read this book, though I intend to do so soon … I’ve certainly enjoyed Dickson’s “Hidden Language of Baseball” and recently quoted passages from his “Baseball Dictionary” (“sacrifice,” 2nd edition). This new title is brilliant. In fact, I’m wondering if at any point – perhaps at the book’s conclusion? – Dickson allows his title to speak for itself as a succinct declarative sentence that eloquently sums everything up with its simple subject and verb: Baseball is.
As I mentioned, it certainly makes a nice father’s day gift. About 10 years ago, Curt Smith edited an illustrated, coffee table book on “What Baseball Means to Me,” a collection of essays, mostly by celebrities, about the importance of the game in their lives. That was well done, too, on a different scale.
As I mentioned, it certainly makes a nice father’s day gift. About 10 years ago, Curt Smith edited an illustrated, coffee table book on “What Baseball Means to Me,” a collection of essays, mostly by celebrities, about the importance of the game in their lives. That was well done, too, on a different scale.
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