R E P O R T RESUN'ES ED 020 931 TE 000 557 IN AMERICAN FICTION. BY GRAINER, RALPH 3. PUB DATE NOV 67 EDRS PRICE MF$0.25 HC $0.44 9P.

DESCRIPTORS *LITERARY HISTORY,*, *FICTION, *AMERICAN CULTURE,LITERARY ANALYSIS, TWENTIETH CENTURY LITERATURE, ,FANTASY, , LITERARY CRITICISM, SOCIAL VALUES, MORALVALUES, SOCIAL ATTITUDES, SHORT STORIES,

BASEBALL FICTION HAS MOVEDFROM THE JUVENILE STORIESOF THE TURN OF THE CENTURY TOADULT FICTION IN WHICHTHE GAME IS EXAMINED FOR THE LIGHT IT SHEDSON THE PARADOXES OFAMERICAN LIFE. EARLY BASEBALL FICTIONWAS DIRECTED TOWARDTHE DIMENOVEL AUDIENCE, BUT AFTERWORLD WAR I, SUCH WRITERSAS AND RING LARDNERAIMED FOR ADULT READERSAND PRODUCED ACCOUNTS OF BASEBALLCONTAINING VALID INSIGHTSINTO THE AMERICAN SCENE.INTHE 30'S, THOMAS WOLFE,, AND JAMES T. FARRELLWROTE ABOUT THE GAME INTHEIR NOVELS, AND SINCE WORLD WAR II,WRITERS HAVE PRODUCEDBASEBALL FICTION RANGING FROM FANTASYTO REALISTIC NOVELS. THEBEST RECENT BASEBALL FICTION(E.G., 'S"" AND MARK HARRIS'"THE SOUTHPAW," "BANG THEDRUM SLOWLY," AND'"A TICKET FORSEAMSTITCH") CONCENTRATES NOT MERELY ON THE GAME OR THEPLAYERS' LIVES BUT ON THEUNIVERSAL PROBLEMS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR.(THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN "FWGLISH JOURNAL," VOL. 56(NOVEMBER 1967), 1107.s.14.) (LH)

ti

.10...0.1

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION &WELFARE Off ICE OF EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT HAS SEEN REPRODUCEDEXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE

PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT.POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS

STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIALOFFICE OF EDUCATION

POSITION OR POLICY. ENGLISHJOURNAL Vol. 56 November 1967 No. 8

Baseball in AmericanFiction "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED Ralph S. Graber Ifeafrit, W.A.A.let/

Department of English TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING Muhlenberg College UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE U.S OFFICE OF Allentown, Pennsylvania EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REQUIRES PERMISSION Of THE COPYRIGHT OWNER." . MARK TWAIN had an explanationhave themselves been subject to the base- for the popularity and influence ofball fever. The game has always had baseball during his time. "Baseball is thea special attractionfor the intellectual. very symbol," he wrote,"the outward(See "Intellectuals and Ballplayers" by and visible expression of the driveandRoger Kahn in The American Scholar, push and rush and struggle of the raging,Summer 1957.) tearing, booming nineteenth century." Early baseball fiction was mainly di- A contemporary writer, JacquesBarzun,rected at juveniles, but during the first also testified to the importance ofbase-quarter of the twentieth centurywhen ball in American life when he wrote,baseball reporters such as , "Whoever wants to know the heart andHeywood Broun, and Gerald Beaumont mind of America had better learnbase-turned to writing baseball storiesde- ball,therules andrealitiesof thesigned for adult readers, they produced game ...." In site of the twentieth-fiction that has merit apart from its century competition offootball andsports content. Duringthe past thirty basketball, baseball remains our mostyears, in the novelsof Thomas Wolfe popular game, at least in the opinion ofand James T. Farrell, two of the most a historian such asBruce Catton (seedistinctly American writers this country "The Great American Game," Americanhas produced, and the baseball novels Heritage, April 1959) and according toof Bernard Malamud and Mark Harris, a poll of personsattending the New Yorkthe importance of the sport in any true World's Fair. Since it is an importantpicture of American society has been part of our culture, it hasbeen inevitablerecognized. Although they are baseball that the influence and popularity ofstories,Malamud's The Natural and the sport would be reflected in AmericanHarris' diamond novels do not have the literature. American writers have hadgame as their primary concernbut are ti to take note of baseball'simportant placeinterested in the tragic-comical paradoxes in the national scene, and many of themof modern existence and reveal interest-

1107

s. 1.T:71! 1108 ENGLISHJOURNAL ing and universal insights into humanMurphy, The Great Shortstop; or The behavior. Little Midget of the .Giants, by Bill In addition to the movement fromBoxer, Referee ( Five Cent baseball fiction directed at juveniles toLibrary No. 87), published in1892, stories intended for adults, there haswhich traces the exploits of a Yale player been a shift in the presentation of thefrom the Yale-Princeton games to the ballplayer himself. In the early storiesGiants in the old Polo Grounds. the athlete was a heroic figure with the With the appearance of the Frank highest moral standards engaged in aMerriwell stories by Burt L. Standish heroic occupation, an athlete who rose(Gilbert Patten) in Street and Smith's from the bush leagues often to own aTip Top Weekly in 1896, stories about major league team after his playing daysbaseball achieved a far wider audience. were over. More recent authors haveIt is estimated that each edition of the seen him as a man whose career is almoststories was read by a million persons over when he reaches thirty, an innocent,weekly. Although Merriwell wasa star simple person unable to adjust to the newinall sports, he achieved his greatest life and temptations of the big city, afame on the diamond with his famous man whose hopes and dreams remaindouble-shoot, a delivery that curved in unrealized. two directions on the way to the plate, a pitch that no major leaguer from APARTAPART from a passage (at the end ofChristy Mathewson to Sandy Koufax XLII) in Mark Twain'shas been able to duplicate. Asa result A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur'sof Merriwell's diamond exploits, theex- Court (1889), early baseball fiction waspressions "a Frank Merriwell play" or sub-literary in spite of its great pop-a "Frank Merriwell finish" became stock ularity. In Mark Twaiii's , the Yan-phrases in describing exciting or spectac- kee, Hank Morgan, introduces the gameular performances in fields other than into sixth-century England to replacebaseball and remain a permanent part the tournament as an escape for "the of our language. extra steam of chivalry" and to keep Although many ofthenumerous the knights entertained and out of mis-Merriwell stories contained no baseball chief. The experimentaffords Markaction (the Merriwell stories continued Twain the opportunity for some of histo appear into the 1920's), others are superb humor because the knights 'playliberally sprinkled with accounts of base- the game clad in full armor. Conse-ball games. A typical Merriwell finish quently, they never avoid ground balls,occurs in the chapter, "A Hot Finish," with the result that balls rebound atin Frank Merriwell at Yale. Although great distances. When they slid, it wasonly a freshman, young Frank has been "like an ironclad coming into port." promoted to the Yale varsity baseball In the nineteenth century, though, theteam. Yale and Harvard have each won dime novel was the leading source ofone game in their annual series, and the early baseball fiction. Among the mostdeciding contest is to be held at Spring- popular and important were Muldoon'sfield,Massachusetts,neutralground. Baseball Club in Philadelphia, by TomMerriwell, relatively untried in varsity Teaser (Wide Awake Library No. 971),competition, must pitch the crucial game published in 1890, a hilarious novel de-because Old Eli's regular varsity hurler scribing games between Muldoon's Irishhas a sore arm. Baseball Club and the "Gold Ball Club," The tension mounts as Merriwell and Harry Wright's Athletics, the German-the clever Harvard pitcher keep Guzzlers, and others; and Yaleopponents scoreless for five innings. In BASEBALL IN AMERICANFICTION 1109 the sixth Harvard scores a run(on errors,the summers of 1890 and 1891. Among of course), and the game goesinto thehis players were the famous BillCorrigan last half of the ninth withYale stillof the Boston Red Sox and Mike Powers shut out. Then, with two outand a manof the . However, it was on first, Merriwellfaces the Harvardin the "College Life Series," written pitcher, Yedding, who laughs inhis faceunder his own name, that Patten pro- (Yedding had previously performedthe duced his best baseball fiction. The novels rare feat ofstriking Frank out). Withcenter on Roger Boltwoodof Yale. In a count of twoand two, Merriwellthe best of the lot, Sons of OldEli drives the next pitch to deep leftfield, (1923), Boltwood takes over as playing and with "every man, woman, andchildmanager of a minor-league team.Not standing" and with much shoutingandonly are the dialogue and the situations waving of "flags, hats, or handkerchiefs,"more realistic, butthe book is an inter- he scurries around the bases andslidesesting study of the impact of a ball team home in a cloud of dust. Then,afteron the life of a small townand is free sudden silence: from the moralizing of the Merriwell novels. Boltwood even smokes cigars. "Safe home!" rang óe voice of the Rivalling Patten's baseball fiction in umpire. Then anotherroar,louder,popularity was the "Baseball Joe" series wilder,fullof unbounded joy! Theof Lester Chadwick (the pseudonymof Yale cheer! The band drowned byall Edward Stratemeyer, a prolific writer the uproar! The sight of sturdy ladsof books for boys, who turned out the in blue, deliriiyus with delight, hugging a Tom Swift series under the pseudonym dust-covered youth, lifting him to theirof Victor Appleton and the famous shoulders, and bearing him away inRover Boy books under the name of triumph. Merriwell had won his ownArthur M. 'Winfield, plus other series game, and his record wasmade. It wasin his spare time). The fourteen Base- a gloriousfinish! ball Joe novels, which appeared over a span oftwenty-three years from before Inspiteoftheirpopularity,theWorld War I to the 1920's, trace the Merriwell stories have serious weaknessescareer of Joe Matsonfrom the sandlots stock characterization, stilted dialogue,to the Giants andultimately to club improbable situations, and heavy moral-ownership. Joe also made a stop at Yale izing lessen their literary value. en route. This seriesis sophisticated and realistic than Patten's novels, and N addition to the Merriwell stories,the books are filled with impossible dia- I11-Gilbert Patten produced two otherlogue and situation. Joe is not only the series of baseball fiction, along withindi- outstanding pitcher in the league but vidual baseball novels. One group, thethe leadinghitter as well. When he "Big-League Series" (1914 ff.), writtendoesn't pitch, he plays in the outfield. under the Burt L. Standish pseudonym,The popularity of the series in spite traces the rise of PhilHazelton, whoof its literary flaws is evidence of the plays under the name of Lefty Locke,American boy's insatiable interest in the from the hush leagues to the majors to game. the ultimate ownership of a major league team. These stories are morerealistic FAR better craftsman than Strate- and display Patten's intimate knowledgeAmeyer or Patten wasRalph Henry of the game gained from his managingBarbour, many of whose approximately a professionalbaseball team in the old 150 books deal with baseball. His dialogue Knox County League in Maine duringis more natural, his plots fresher, his de- .

watfi-Atualifittigstftisigsadi" atauataiiiitiabiewatitalibaalwaggiattaciaitivaigiagiskitifiksa

1110 ENGLISHJOURNAL scription an integral part of thenovels,the time, but The RedheadedOutfield and his portrayal of character moreim-and Other Baseball Stories (1915) is a portant in the outcomeof the action. Inconsiderable advancement. In "Old Well- novels such as Weatherby's Inning,TheWell" and "The Rube" there is more Crimson Sweater, and For the Honorofeffort at vivid characterization inaddi- the School, he vividly describedthetion to a greater realism. games in detailand at the same time made a case forhonesty and simplicity in sports THE best of the juvenile fiction of and showed that for the averageboy the time, however, is an undeservedly athletics were an aid rather than adetri-almost forgotten novel, The Humming- ment to study.Barbour's schools arebird (1910), by Owen Johnson, famous greatly romanticized and idealized.Thefor his Laurenceville stories andthe books seem highly sentimental tothecreator of the famousschoolboy athlete, modern reader with their accountsofDink Stover. More subtle and sophisti- the boys watching from the towersofcated than other baseball fiction ofthe their school buildings as the sun setsintime, the novel contains superb satire, tones of red andgold and twilight slowlyespecially of the elegant variation in the settles on the campus. The herois dimlydiction of baseball reporters. The"hum- conscious of being moved by afeeling, mingbird" is the term a young reporter partly of pleasure, partly ofmelancholy, for the school's paper applies to asiz- a sense of regretand affection, of thezling line drive. In plot, characterization, thoughts of the brevity of youthandand style, The Hummingbird is the best of his chances for getting into a game. of the early baseball fiction. There is no doubt of Barbour'shistor- Up to this time baseball fiction had ical place in baseball fiction.Moreover,been aimed chiefly at juveniles and was his clet,r and vivid accounts ofthe games frequently sub-literary. However, the in his novels were so superior totheworks of such writers as Gerald Beau- accountsof actual games thatmont, Charles E. VanLoan, and espe- sports reporting became moreinterestingcially Heywood Broun and Ring Lardner as his books sweptthe country and thewhich appeared chiefly from the time accounts of imaginary gamesformed theof World War I to 1930, were written model for the reporting of real ones. for adults and apart from their accounts Another popular pre-World WarIof baseball games and the lives of the series, though extremely juvenileand ofplayers contain insights into man's life no literaryvalue, were the alliterativeand the American scene. title baseball stories supposedlywritten Beaumont, who served as an official by the great Christy Mathewson(Pitcherscorer for PacificCoast League games, Pollock, First Base Faulkner). Actuallyin a story such as "The Crab" from the stories were ghostwrittenby JohnHearts and the Diamond (1921) pro- N. Wheeler, perhaps the firstof a longduced vivid and realisticdescriptions, series of ghostwriters for athletes. created lifelike characters, and created ' , prolific writer of westerns,extreme human interest.Van Loan, like took time from turning out hispopularLardner, Broun, and Beaumont, was a novels of the West to produce baseballnewspaperman who turned to sportsfic- fiction of varying quality. As starof thetion, principally of baseball but also of University of Pennsylvania varsity base-boxing and golf. The stories in the Lucky ball team and a minor-leagueplayer,Seventh (1913) were not as successful Grey had a firsthand knowledge ofthein characterization as those in the later sport. His TheShort Stop (1909)is Score by Innings (1919), of which "Mr. much like the other baseballfiction ofConley" is probably the best. Van Loan's

omorwr."141v="wr7P177-4fre BASEBALL IN AMERICAN FICTION 1111 stories are slick and commercial but vitalhad become a permanent part of our and full of vivid characterization. literature. With Ring Lardner baseball fiction reached new heights. As a sports colum- H E quality of baseball fiction for nist on the Tribune beforeTadults continued to improve in the World War I, he began writing base-1930's and 40's. Although neither devoted ball stories that reveal his intimate knowl-an entire novel to baseball, thefiction of edge of the ballplayer andhislife.Thomas Wolfe and James T. Farrell Although he later broadened his scopecontains superb passages dealing with the to cover a wide rangeof the Americangame, and there are excellentshort stories scene and character,his baseball storiesby writers with styles as diverse as those are among his best. Hisbaseball novelof , James Thurber, You Know Me, Al (1916), consistingand , in addition to the of a "busher's" letters home, remains asmultitude of baseball stories that ap- a superb exampleof Lardner's insightpeared during this period aimed at the into player's habits, conversation, andmass readership of TheSaturday Evening way of" life generally.The letters werePost and Collier's. ostensibly written by the rookie, a barely Thomas Wolfe, who had a great love literate Jack Keefe, to his friend Al backfor baseball and baseball players, pro- in his home town. The blunt cynicismduced two outstanding episodes dealing and broad humor displayed are typicalwith the national game. In Of Time and of Lardner. Keefe's malapropisms suchthe River (1935) Wolfe in his typical as "city serious" for city series are an-poetic and unrestrained lyrical style de- other source of mirth. But it is in hisscribes a crowd in Altamont (really his short stories that Lardner is at his best.home town of Asheville, North Carolina) In "Horseshoes," "Alibi Ike" (whichwatching the progress of the final game contributed a new expression to the lan-of the 1912 , indicated on guage), "Harmony," and other baseballa scoreboard outside the newspaperoffice. stories we see the laughing Lardner cre-At the same time, 'Wolfe in his imagina- ate memorable characters, depict thelifetion pictures the incomparable beauty of a baseball player accurately, and atand drama of the game as it unfolds in the same time provide perceptive and"the great sky-soaring, smoke-gold, and illuminating insights into human behavior.enchanted city of the North. ..." In Heywood Broun, Harvard-educatedthis, one of his finest passages, Wolfe baseball reporter, drama critic, and syn-sees the gam.; as a meansof giving dicated , employed the idiomtemporary unity to the fluxof time. of sports even in discussing serious sub-In another passage (from You Can't Go jects. In addition to his short pieces onHome Again) Wolfe creates a vivid and baseball, he produced an interesting novelreal sketch of Nebraska Crane, a veteran on the game, The Sun Field (1923).Likeballplayer near the end of his career Lardner, Broun is concerned with theas abig leaguer, that shows Wolfe's human situation, not only in describingintimate knowledge of the sport. the game. In The Sun Field, Tiny Tyler, It is no wonder that James T. Farrell's slugging outfielder of the Yankees, whoStuds LoniganTrilogy(1935)and bears a close resemblance to Babe Ruth,Danny O'Neill tetralogy contain fre- marries Judith 'Winthrop, an intellectualquent passages dealing with the game, writer for a highbrow magazine. Brounfor as a boy Farrell's main interest was is concerned with the results and prob-in baseball, and his own ambition was lems of the marriage. With Lardner andto become a major league player.He Broun, baseball fiction for adult readersstates in My Baseball Diary,"Since I 1112 ENGLISHJOURNAL began writing, I always planned to in-inspired Bill Veeck to use a midget in clude in my fiction various aspects ofa majorleague game. Although the game baseball." The most vivid is the accountin which the midget, Pearl du Monville, of young Danny O'Neill witnessing Edappears isgraphically presented, the em- Walsh pitching a no-hit game, a contestphasis is not on the game itself but on that Farrell himself observed on Au-human nature. Du Monville, sent into gust27,1911. The zccount revealsthe game at a crucial time to get a walk, Farrell's great love for the game andin his moment of triumph is unable to knowledge of it, and is a revealing por-resist swinging at the fourth ball and trayal of a young boy's awe for the gamehitting a little roller on which he is and its heroes as well as the action of aretired for the final out. The midget ball game at the time. disappears, but the tension on the team is broken, and they launch a winning ANOTHER writer in the Farrell tradi- streak. -C-3- don, Nelson Algren, has as the cen- In another vein is Damon Runyon's tral character in his brutally realistic"Baseball Hattie," full of Broadwayese Never Come Morning (1942) a Poledialect and slang, the story of a woman fromChicago'sWestSide,Brunobaseball bug who runs a house of ill- "Lefty" Bicek. Bicek, a pitcher of prom-repute and falls in lovewith a rustic, ise as well as a prizefighter, is a victimyoung left-hander of theGiants. of his environment unable to become more than a pitcherfor neighborhood BASEBALL fiction for juveniles like- teams. Only in hisdreams does he see wise improved vastly in the twenties himself hurling a no-hit game or reach-with the novels of William Heyliger, ing the majors. who avoided the romanticized plot of Of the short stories, Pulitzer PrizeBarbour and produced realistic, fast-mov- winner Robert Penn Warren's "Good-ing stories such as The Captain of the wood Comes Back" (from The CircusNine and Batter Up, plus a host of short in the Attic and Other Short Stories,storiesin The American Boy. This 1941), although not well known, is thegreater sophistication wascontinued in most distinguished. Itrelates the deteri-the Forties in the novels of John. R. oration of Luke Goodwood, a small-Tunis, such as The Kid from Tompkins- town boy who for a brieftime becameville, and Duane Decker, The Short Stop, a pitching wizard inthe big leagues butstories which adults read with pleasure. then fell a victim of drink and wasFiction for boys had been liberated from reduced to pitching weekends in thethe straitjacket of the series book and sticks. Warren shows Goodwood, whodealt with realistic, tough situations free was interested only inhunting and fish-from the idealization, banter, and horse- ing and possessed little in the way ofplay of the early juvenile stories. intellectual resources, unable to adjust Baseball fiction for adults since World to his new-found wealth andlife in theWar II has developed in several direc- large cities of the North. The storytionsthe stories of farce and fantasy, contains no description of an. actual ballthe hardboiledrealisticnovel thatis game but is concerned, asis the work ofchiefly only a good story, those which Malamud and Harris later, with the effectuse a baseball game as aframework or of the game on human behavior. include a leading character connected James Thurber's "You Could Look Itwith the game, and those books about Up," which first appeared in The Sat-the game that are far more than baseball urday Evening Post (1942), is one ofnovels, but are concerned with the prob- the best-known baseball stories, one thatlems of existence.

7-, 7 '","" ..-wx74777, i. . .1,17 ,,A4Z;e41t1,,a...A 451'4A

BASEBALL IN AMERICANFICTION 1113

In thefirstgroup, JohnDouglas Although the baseball novels inthis Wallop's The Year the YankeesLostcategory contributelittle to the good the Pennant (Norton, 1954) isprobablyliterature on the sport, they showthat best-known, perhaps because it wasmadethe interest of the author andpopulace into the popular musical comedyandin the game is as great as ever. later the movie, Damn Yankees.It is the story of Joe Boyd, amiddle-aged real TYPICAL of the hard-boiled, realistic estate salesmanwho sells his soul to the baseball novels is Eliot Asinof's Man devil to realize alifelong dream ofon Spikes (McGraw,1955), which is becoming a major league baseballplayerliberally sprinkled with profanityand and leading his belovedWashington Sen-other realistic players' talk. Asinof,who ators to a pennant. spe-three years as a player in the farm Also in the realm of fantasy isVal-system of the PhiladelphiaPhillies, relates entine Davis' it Happens EverySpringthe 'history of a minor leagueballplayer (Farrar and Young, 1949), a novelthatbrought up to the majors after his youth- grew from afilm story. The story isful skills have faded. Martin Quigley, a variation on oneof Barbour's stories,in Today's Game (Viking, 1965),also Billy Mayes' Great Discovery,whichdescribes the game with authenticity. relates the advantages of a bat madeofHe focuses on a critical game inthe hoki-moki wood, which attracts horse-managerial career of Barney Mann of the hide and thus always makes cor ..actwithBlue Jays, who has traded one of the the ball. In Davis' story a youngcollegebest pitchers in the league for a young chemistry instructor discovers aliquidNegro outfielder, now in a battingslump which when applied to a baseball causesthat may cost the manager his job.An- it to be repelled by the woodand thusother novel in the realistic vein is Charles hop over . Under anassumed_Einstein's The Only Game inTown name and with a sponge wetwith the (Dell, 1955). liquid in his glove, the youngchemist, Irwin Shaw's Voices of a Summer who is a great baseball fan, pitches aDay (Delacorte Press, 1965) is a skillful major league team to the pennant. narrative which has as its framework a Other stories depend for their fantasyfather (Ben Federov) watching his son and humor on unusual ownershipofplay in a neighborhood baseball game. ball teams. In H. Allen Smith'ssex-laden The shouting of the players, the echoes satire Rhubarb (Doubleday,1946), aof another time, the languor of the day Tomcat inherits a major league teamset the stage forFederov to think of along with millions. A more recentbook,his own exploits on the .diamond and Paul Malloy's A Pennant for theKremlinfrom there to go on to review some of (Doubleday, 1964), is the wacky storythe events of his life. The bittersweet of an eccentric millionaire's bequeathingnostalgia of the reverie is interrupted the to the Russiansat times by a return tothe action on the and the resulting problems asthey rundiamond. Thus baseball has provided the the team. The book rather obviouslyimpetus and framework for a man to makes its point of having theSoviettotal up the runs, the hits, and the errors Commissar of Baseball come to lovetheof his half-century of life. American way through his experiences ThebaseballnovelsofBernard. with thenationalpastime. An evenMalamud and Mark Harris deal with wilder novel is Bud Nye's Stay Loosethemes much broader and with deeper (Doubleday, 1959), in which a tycoonimplications than merely a concern with acquires a major league team and seeksball, games and the lives of baseball play- to run it as he runshis factory. ers. Malamud's TheNatural (Harcourt,

tt.

,P977rPnT,TrFmi...:7:4.V877 :t- - 1. .414 lr 2, "71,4:h

1114 ENGLISHJOURNAL Brace, 1952) through its central char-Southpaw (Bobbs-Merrill, 1953); Bang acter, Roy Hobbs, explores theball- the Drum Slowly (Knopf, 1956); and player as a folk hero and mythic char-A Ticket for Seamstitch (Knopf, 1957), acter. As one critic pointed out,Hobbs haveastheircentralfigure Henry "becomes not only Shoeless Joe JacksonWiggin,adetachedandintelligent, but Achilles in his tent and Sir Percivalthough uneducated, pitcher who also in vain pursuit of the Holy Grail." Roy'srises as a mythic figure in life as well team is named symbolically enoughtheas in baseball. Harrishas Wiggin, a more New York Knights, managed by Popsophisticated Jack Keefe, relate the sto- Fisher, who suffers from a skin ailmentries in the first person and in the vernac- andlaments the dry season. ular. Wiggin is an extremely real char- With his bat, "Wonderboy," whichacter with compassionfor his father, his had been scorched by lightning, Hobbswife and family, and his teammates. In lifts the Knights :nto a pennant contend-Bang the Drum Slowly, Wiggin's com- er, but his initialfailure as a human beingpassion for and loyalty to Bruce Pearson, makes his success shortlived. His pride,a third-stringcatcher slowly dying of gluttony, and weakness for women leadHodgkin's disease, turn the book into him to half-heartedly throw the crucialfar more than a good baseball novel. The game. Too late he has achange of mind.work is concerned with the effects of Although at the end Hobbs rises throughimpending death on Bruce and has team- the moral chaos of the baseball worldmates and their increased awareness.All to become a humanbeing larger thanthis is told without sentimentality and life itself, a figure of Bunyanesque magni-with great technical understanding of tude, his failure and suffering are drama-baseball to produce a novel that examines tized as newspaper headlines proclaim hismuch more than a game and the lifeof disgrace while he stands in the streeta ballplayer. and weeps. Malamud has shown how Thus, baseball literature has moved difficult it is to be a hero in a societyfrom the story told for the juvenile to that demands that its knights resist thethe fiction which attracts the intellectual forbidden limits which the masses ofto examine the gamein literature for the weaker flesh enjoy. light it sheds on American life and the Mark Harris'baseballnovels, Theparadoxes of modern existence.