Baseball Bookshelf Recommendation #2

It's impossible not to be taken in by the view of baseball that former Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatte gives in his various writings on the sport. In the small collection of his essays, A Great and Glorious Game, there are pieces he wrote before entering the Commissioner's office and after.

I really don't want to over-write about the essays in this book. I found reading them to be very personal, as there were many times where the feelings baseball evokes in me were captured in words and scenes created by Giamatti's writing; to the point that sometimes it feels as if I could have written them (if I were anywhere near as accomplished a writer and academic as Giamatti was.)

There are in total nine essays, with very helpful summaries by editor Kenneth S. Robson, that help set the timeframe and atmosphere in which Giamatti wrote each piece. David Halberstam precedes the essays with a thoughtful and sincere foreword for the book and the man behind the words. To quote Halberstam, Giamatti "...loved baseball, he loved history, he loved ideas, and he loved words" (p. IX). My kind of Commissioner.

Read this book or try and find the different essays online somewhere and read them. They are definitely worth your time. I'll list them all at the end of the post to help in your searching.

Hope you enjoyed the Jays 2011 return to TV broadcasted baseball today! Watching baseball or reading about it (or writing about it) is definitely the best way to spend a Sunday in March.
Until soon,
JaysGirl5

P.S. For another great baseball book, check out David Halberstam's The Teamates: A Portrait of Friendship. Again, you won't be sorry.

Essays by A. Bartlett Giamatti:

• "The Green Fields of the Mind", from the Yale Alumni Magazine, 1977
• "Tom Seaver's Farewell", from Harper's Magazine, 1977
• "Recall as the Series Ends, the Afternoon of the Fall", from The Hartford Courant, 1978
• "Men of Baseball, Lend an Ear", from The New York Times, 1981
• "Baseball and the American Character", presented to The Massachusetts Historical Society, 1985
• "Decision in the Appeal of Kevin Gross", presented to The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, 1987
• "To Sports Fans: Clean Up Your Act", from The Boston Globe, 1987
• "Baseball as Narrative", from Take Time for Paradise, 1989
• "Statement Released to the Press on the Pete Rose Matter", from The New York Times, 1989