Since I don’t know if you folks get to the comments portion of the program, I thought I’d post these remarks about the issue of memoirs submitted by Bill Lewers — whose book I reviewed in December — as a stand alone entry.It seems Genzlinger’s comments in the Times‘ Sunday Book Review on the relative (non-) worth of such projects is a lightning rod for discussion.
As someone who has led an exceedingly unremarkable life I find myself rebuked by Neil Genzlinger for presuming to write a memoire (Six Decades of Baseball: A Personal Narrative) that apparently should never have been written. This has caused me to reflect on just why I chose to contribute to the “flood” of memoires that so obviously distresses Mr. Genzlinger.
My reasons for writing my memoire included
a. Having the simple satisfaction of writing a book.
b. Sharing my story with my family and friends (and yes, getting a bit of recognition from them as well).
c. Leaving a legacy for my sons and anyone else down the line who might be interested (My wife is currently compiling a genealogical scrapbook for our sons and nephews and oh how we wish that some of those unremarkable people who gaze back at us from their photos had written some of their memories down on paper).
d. It was fun! To look on your own baseball past and try to come up with just the right words to describe this game or that player was a very rewarding exercise – the next best thing to getting to relive it – I can’t recommend it enough.
e. However much I might tell myself that this was not a commercial venture, there was a dream/fantasy that maybe, just maybe, it would be a book that others outside of my immediate sphere might enjoy (enjoy enough to fork over the $20 price).Well a little over a year has passed since Six Decades of Baseball has been published and it is fair to say that the dream/fantasy of a commercially viable product has not been realized. While a few of the folks that I approached wrote favorable reviews (thank you Ron Kaplan) others respectfully declined which I can fully understand – a request from a complete stranger to read/review a book is an imposition and no reviewer should feel the least bit of guilt for passing. Sales have been very limited – at a recent SABR event I was allowed table space to promote my book. While several people were interested in hearing about my project, no one was interested enough to actually pay money to read it. Yes, my book is definitely not a best seller.
I would maintain however that just because a dream is not achieved does not imply that that the effort should not have been undertaken. Mr. Genzlinger seems to feel that some sort of objective criteria should be met before we presume to put our memories to paper. To that I would simply reply that as ordinary baseball fans I feel that we are just as much a part of the tapestry of baseball as the players or managers or even the sports writers. And even though our stories don’t generate the wide range of interest that a Mickey Mantle biography commands – perhaps the sphere of interest extends only to our family and immediate friends but that doesn’t mean that the stories in not worthy of being told and I am very grateful that the current print on demand technology provides an affordable opportunity for ordinary fans like myself to share our baseball memories.
In this case, I find myself solidly behind Lewers. Of course, it helps that he published a quality product that helps to remind readers, especially among his age-contemporaries, of shared (and hopefully pleasant) moments.
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