Best Baseball Novel

Just yanking your chain.

Neither Jon Cusack nor DB Sweeney would ever throw a game. Great job of acting by all involved in that movie, which is one of my faves.

And I believe Joe Jackson is the only player to be the all-time leading hitter (for average) for two MLB teams (ChiSox, Indians), unless Carew holds the mark for the Twinkies and Angels.

 

Freddie Patek?

 

That was fucking haunting.

 

"BALL FOUR" by Jim Bouton

 

It was a solid read. Why do you Braves fans always rain on the Phillies' parade?

 

Fine, than "Heart of the Order" was another one.

 

I bow to your pure baseball novel intellect and retire into the night like Mike Schmidt.

 

The line in my mind between novels and short fiction, etc is quite blurred in my mind. I can't even try to consider it right now. If we are talking about baseball prose, then consider those two (which we aren't...although not novels are solid works) but then if not, I'll think of something tomorrow. Right now my mind is not thinking between novels and stuff.

 

That is why I said, "novels and short fiction, etc", the etc includes biography or non-fiction, or whatever else is in the baseball writing realm of longer prose. I think they are the best instances of baseball prose, sorry this isn't the thread for it, but I just threw it out here. I don't know many baseball novels.

 

Zed: Bring out the Gimp.
Maynard: But the Gimp's sleeping.
Zed: Well, I guess you're gonna have to go wake him up now, won't you?


That's all the Pulp Fiction for tonight.

 

Dark, disturbing, fantastic book. It's been many years since I've read it, and I might have to again soon.

 

For DeLillo fans, there's "Pafko at the Wall." Published separately as a novella, it's the prologue to DeLillo's genius-book "Underworld."

http://www.amazon.com/Pafko-at-Wall-Don-DeLillo/dp/0743230000/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-9460111-2311836?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185020998&sr=8-1

And I agree on Robert Coover, a largely unsung titan of American fiction. "Pricksongs and Descants" is his masterpiece collection of short stories.