Breaking The Slump

b is for baseball

About this time of year - every year - I get a jones for baseball. Since no cable operator has the sense to televise winter league games from the tropics, I'm pretty much stuck reading books. Last year it was A Day In The Bleachers and The Summer Game. This winter I chose a book by my favorite baseball author - Charles Alexander.

I had the good fortune to study under Alexander as a wide-eyed (well, not exactly) freshman at Ohio University in his Baseball History class. While the title of the course may suggest otherwise, I can tell you the class was no cake walk. I worked my ass off (well, as much as you can work in Athens in springtime, which ain't much) and as a huge, well-read baseball fan, I got a B.

Alexander has also authored one of the best books of any genre I've ever read - the biography of Ty Cobb. He's also written baseball books on John McGraw and Rogers Hornsby, plus a definative history of the sport (Our Game). I've never read any of his other, non-baseball books, (Holding the Line; The Eisenhower Era 1952-1961 and Nationalism In American Thought 1930-1945 among them), but would like to someday... if I ever have the time.

So I've picked up Breaking The Slump; Baseball In The Depression Era. So far, its a good fun read that makes me long for old time baseball - Grover Alexander, Kiki Cuyler and Tony Lazzari... But seventy pages in and already the book is a little labored as a chronological history, though Alexander infuses it with just enough wit to keep it interesting (just like he did in class back in old Bentley Hall). Read one decent review here.

As another sure sign of spring, I treated myself to a (very) early birthday gift and picked up a fungo jersey from my good pals at Ebbets Field Flannels. Sign up for their email list and get in on the big warehouse sale coming up at the end of this month.

Back to more Country Boys on PBS.