Extra Innings
About the Book
Where can we find the truth about baseball? In nostalgic stories of the timeless bond woven between fathers and sons on the field? Or in stinging exposés about manipulative owners, abusive coaches, and greedy players?In a series of astute reflections on baseball histories, biographies, personal reminiscences, and fiction, Richard Peterson explores how baseball writers have generated and challenged the narrative myths of the sport and its players. He looks at the shifting balance of romance and fact in standard baseball histories and offers a lively discussion of baseball fiction from the tall tales of W. P. Kinsella and Ring Lardner, to moral romances such as Bernard Malamud's The Natural. In addition, he discusses the influence of Jackie Robinson on the serious baseball novel and the reluctance of baseball fiction to engage race issues before offering a Top Nine reading list for the aficionado.
About the Author
Richard Peterson is a professor emeritus of English at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is the author of Growing Up With Clemente and coauthor of The Slide: Leyland, Bonds, and the Star-Crossed Pittsburgh Pirates.Reviews
"Peterson attempts to get at central questions about baseball by exploring the depiction of our national pastime in literature. In discussing books from Bernard Malamud's famous The Natural to Mark Harris's more-obscure The Southpaw, Peterson brings alive dramas and themes that have echoed for generations."--Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune"[Peterson] adds a dimension to the discussion of serious baseball writing that has been lacking until now."--David Shiner, Elysian Fields
Blurbs
"Richard Peterson's essays repeatedly give readers delightful shocks of recognition about a game they will know better when they digest this book."--George F. Will
"Richard Peterson knows baseball—and he also knows how it has been written down. His unique command of both ends of this process lets him show what is so valuable about the game and why writers have gone astray in pursuit of it."--Jerome Klinkowitz, author of Owning a Piece of the Minors
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