Great Baseball Stories

Ruminations and Nostalgic Reminiscences on Our National Pastime

Here is a wonderful collection of 20 revealing essays on the national pastime. Featuring contributions from Roger Angell, John Thorn, Frank Deford, George Plimpton, Stefan Fatsis, and others (plus a foreword by the legendary Yogi Berra), the stories are united by the authors’ fervent love of the game.

©2008, 2012 the Creative Nonfiction Foundation (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Great stories

This is a great compilation of baseball stories showing the personal side of the sport

Fan Stories

I should have read more about what the book was before purchase. It wasn’t a bad read, it just wasn’t what I expected. It is a collection of well written essays from baseball fans. Some were insightful, others historical, and some were meh.

Stunning

For anyone who grew up as a baby boomer there is simply a strong cultural bond with baseball. This book really captures that in florid prose. While I can’t say that baseball remains the national pastime, it certainly was that and more in post-World War II America.

Hard to keep interested

While the stories were somewhat enjoyable, the same cannot be said about the narrator. I listened to end, but found myself reaching for the pause button quite often, just to get a break from said narrator.

Not for you if you are expecting MLB stories

I was expecting a number of articles like the one by Roger Angell and was surprised to find that most of the stories in this anthology are individual's memories of family, growing up, etc where baseball is a common theme for nostalgia. Stories focus on such things as a first baseball glove, playing catch with dad, going to the ball park with dad, etc. Writers were both male and female. When I discovered what the stories were about, I decided to stop reading after one more story, just one more, and just one more and I suddenly reached the end. What drew me in was the quality of the writing which was the editor's basis for choosing the stories included. Many were written by professional writers whom one may have encountered in another context and do not normally write about baseball. If baseball was part of your life growing up - as a fan, playing with family, playing Little League, etc. you will probably enjoy this book. If you are looking for stories about MLB, then maybe not so much.