Baseball Love

This is my third George Bowering book read in the last couple of months, all three of them memoirs or "sort of" memoirs. The author's love of baseball has been well-documented in all three books. The odd thing was that it seems he didn't really 'dare' to play baseball regularly until he was a young man. As a kid he lacked the confidence, felt gawky and uncoordinated, too tall, etc. I can relate, since I didn't stop growing until I was about 20, topping out at 6'5". And yeah, when you're still growing, grace and coordination are not established, that's for sure.

The basic premise of BASEBALL LOVE is a transcontinental automobile trip Bowering makes across Canada and the USA with his then-fiancee (now wife), Jean Baird, visiting various show more ball parks, some major, but mostly minor league venues. His commentary on players, people observed and met, books about baseball, various Canadian amateur leagues he played in from his twenties all the way up into his sixties (the Kosmic League, the Twilight League) never fails to entertain, and often makes you chuckle and sometimes laugh out loud (which annoyed my wife). Bowering's wry, dry and irreverent sense of humor seems to be a trademark of all his writing, or at least in the three books I've so far read - this one and PINBOY and A MAGPIE LIFE. In fact there are plenty of guffaw-ish funny lines in here, but perhaps one of the best was attributed to his daughter, Thea, when she commented on her dad's legs one of the last times he played ball wearing shorts. She said: "Are those your legs, or are you riding a chicken?" I damn near fell outa my chair laughing. In empathy though, GB. I have pretty ugly old man skinny legs myself.

Bowering is always funny, and ever the curmudgeon. I didn't always agree with George's gripes, but everyone - especially old guys set in their ways - likes what he likes. He likes Bouton's BALL FOUR, Bill Lee's THE WRONG STUFF, Jerome Charyn's THE SEVENTH BABE and Jim Piersall's story, FEAR STRIKES OUT, Philip Roth's THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL and others (I took notes). Bowering doesn't like Malamud's (he calls him, derisively, 'Malamute') novel THE NATURAL - or its movie adaptation. I kinda liked 'em both, but the book more than the film. He doesn't seem to like Mark Harris's baseball tetralogy (beginning with THE SOUTHPAW). I loved all four books, and enjoyed the film version of BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY too. But I do agree that a lot of early baseball movies were really crap. And I also find it sad that so many of the major leage stadiums (and minor too) are now named for major corporations or finance companies. My own Detroit Tigers now play in Comerica Park, named for a bank. And one of their farm teams in Grand Rapids, the West Michigan Whitecaps play in Fifth Third Park - another bank. In fact I learned that Fifth Third owns minor leage parks in a couple other states too. Sad.

But how I do go on. Point is I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I am nowhere near as rabid a baseball fan as George Bowering. You don't need to be a ball fan, in fact, to enjoy BASEBALL LOVE. You just have to like good writing. You'll find it here. Enjoy. show less