In 1938 you could become famous for shouting "Yowza!"

by Fat Vegas Alan on May 8, 2008 2:20 PM EDT in Books & other nerdy stuff

Have you done your homework? It's once again time for another periodic meeting of the Reporter Book Club. This week, we'll discuss "Winter" (pp 27-51) and "Spring" (pp 55-103) from Joe Posnanski's The Soul of Baseball.

There's a lot of good stuff here. Great stories and even better tall tales, Maddux vs Clemens , a plaintive afternoon with the greatest living ballplayer, a shady Negro League busdriver, Sweet Swingin' Billy from Whistler, a big bag of Cracker Jack and seven dollar beers. There's even a Jerry Hairston, Jr. sighting!

Yowza!

Here are a few things to consider:

1] "You go straight until you get to nowhere and then you turn right." (p 39) Have you ever taken a roadtrip or a long drive with a relative stranger or someone who you were sure to know better at the end of a long trip? Ever spent an interesting few hours with a "single-serving friend"?

2] "Buck got into his Plymouth Fury teh next day and drove into the wods to find Oscar Gamble." (p 59) Have you ever driven off "the beaten path" and along the backroads to "scout" something that you had a hunch was going to be good? (Ya know: a restaurant? A band? The world's largest ball of twine?)

3] Simply put, what was your favorite part of this week's reading:

The innocent flirting between a ninety-two year old man and a 101 year old woman?
The Say-Hey Kid's painful mourning of what might have been?
Buck's nearly naked obsession with Josh Gibson and the dynamite sounding bat crack?
There was a lot of good stuff in these pages. What else?

4] "Sneaking a fastball by Buck Leonard was like trying to sneak a sunrise past a rooster." (p 29) What are your favorite cliches, similes, metaphors or idioms or old saws from the game of baseball? (Say what you will about Jeff Brantley calling games. The other day he shared the definition of "a Louisiana breakdown" with me. And I loved him for it.) TSOB also has a lot of great nicknames from the past. Any favorites from baseball?

5] "Baseball marketing directors...constantly invent new things to fill in the quiet spaces between innings and at-bats-- trivia contests, dance-offs, beer gardens, children's play areas ... pizza promotions, blooper videos..." Also: scoreboard races, Kiss Cams, etc... What are your favorite (and least favorite) "extracurricluar activities" at a ballgame?

Anything else?... Tony Oliva? ...Spitballs?...Nolan Ryan's Guinness Book of World Records pitch? Motivational appearances for school children by retired athletes? (Don Newcombe once told me to quit drinking!) ... Anybody ever been to a game in a dome? Anybody ever enjoy a game in a dome? ...Eighteen dollar hamburgers?

Again, feel free to discuss anything and everything you come up with. It's your day. Have an ice cream.

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I'll post more when the questions are up

I just want to say thank you to the Red Reporter Book Club. I wasn’t going to participate, because reading is for dorks. But when I was in Borders this week, instead of ~~reading through graphic novels without buying them~~ scoring numbers of “librarian types” like I usually do, I went to the sports section and picked this up. I flew through the opening pages, and was going to leave after the Willie Mays story. But by the time I finished it, I was choked up and actually (unsuccessfully) fighting back tears. I had to buy the book. So I’m in. All the way to the end with this thing. I think it was Replacement Brendan in the last discussion thread who said this book made him feel, and it sure does. And Slyde said he recognized so many moments from the book from his own life, and I did too. What a wonderful book.

Thanks again.

by Brendanukkah on May 8, 2008 2:39 PM EDT reply actions

graphic novels

You mean Comic Books?

Hope Springs Eternal! Go Reds

by Caleb on May 8, 2008 3:48 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah

Reading is for dorks, but reading comic books is for… geeks?

by Brendanukkah on May 8, 2008 3:56 PM EDT up reply actions

You left out porno when describing the type of novel you peruse.

Eeyore has more fun than a Reds fan.

by Madville on May 8, 2008 3:17 PM EDT reply actions

they sell those in borders?

i’ll have to look into this.

Everybody's a jerk. You. Me. This jerk.

by andromache on May 8, 2008 4:28 PM EDT up reply actions

I used to work at Borders

There is an Erotica section. It’s usually by Psychology (go figure). There was always a lovely class of characters in that section. Like the homeless guy in a chair with his pants unzipped. Or the kind of greasy guy in a suit who would buy the books, stick $50 in the pages (“Because you can’t just give a book.”) and have you giftwrap it.

There’s also skin mags in the “Men’s Interest” section. Well, the bags that they were in are there. The magazines themselves are sticky and behind the toilet in the men’s room.

by Brendanukkah on May 8, 2008 4:32 PM EDT up reply actions

Axl Rose had the best Yowza!

Norris Hopper's #1 fan!!!

by Zach K on May 8, 2008 6:24 PM EDT reply actions

I've posted some discussion questions above.

Go crazy.

I don't know how to paint a banana gourd to look like a Power Ranger.

by Fat Vegas Alan on May 8, 2008 6:38 PM EDT reply actions

Here's my favorite part...

”...hypnotized by Buck’s stories about players in the Negro Leagues… those forgotten players stodd for something great—they had overcome the worst of America. They played baseball.”

That pretty much sums up the best and the worst of what the Negro Leagues have come to represent for me. There’s the good- they played baseball. And there’s the evil- they couldn’t play Major League Baseball. And it’s all mixed up in the half-mythologized histories of the men we’ll only know of from some ghostly black and white photos and memoirs like Posnanski’s and O’Neil’s.

I don't know how to paint a banana gourd to look like a Power Ranger.

by Fat Vegas Alan on May 8, 2008 7:14 PM EDT reply actions

Questions

I actually thought the Willie Mays thing was really interesting and compelling, just because I guess I would have thought out of all of the Negro Leaguers he would have come out of it all with the most positive experience, since he’s such an American Icon. I think I had a mental separation between the guys who didn’t get that much of a chance (or no chance) at the majors and the guys who had long careers like Mays or Hank Aaron.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. --Oscar Wilde

by JD Arney on May 8, 2008 7:25 PM EDT reply actions

I did not expect the Willie Mays reaction

especially the last sentence in that chapter talking about him crying all the way home. I know he had to deal with many things being a black major league ball player in the 50s, but its Wille Mays. He was over a 20 time all star and is generally considered to be the best living player. This book made me realize that he was just a man even though he was one of the greatest athletes baseball has ever seen.

by johnny cueto thinks we're sellouts on May 8, 2008 8:43 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm only half way done with the assignment

but my two favorite quotes of this section so far are:

“Hard being everybody’s hero, I suppose.”

and

It’s a story. It’s my story.

I’m so impressed with how much humanity Posnanski puts into the people he’s writing about. I feel like I’m there. Buck O’Neil is transforming into my hero. I’m disappointed that I didn’t know more about him when he was alive because I sure would have made an effort to meet him.

"Hard being everybody’s hero, I suppose." - Buck O'Neil on Willie Mays

by Slyde on May 8, 2008 9:05 PM EDT up reply actions

I too would have made an effort to meet him

but he’s not truly dead until the smooth music is. That’s why I haven’t shed a single tear for Buck. Keep the fire…

by Red Menace on May 9, 2008 3:38 PM EDT up reply actions

With the you go straight to nowhere and turn right..

I lived there during my middle and high school years. Dodge City, KS, an hour and a half from the interstate, 2 1/2 hrs from a decent airport. Also, I am going to kill a myth that every small town in KS has its own BBQ. Nicodemus certainly does but don’t go to nowhere KS expecting BBQ, you will be sorely dissapointed.

by johnny cueto thinks we're sellouts on May 8, 2008 8:48 PM EDT reply actions

"an hour and a half from the interstate"

That’s crazy.

In Central Ohio, lots of folks like to make fun of “small towns” like Zanesville or Newark. These are medium-sized cities with 25,000-50,000 people. They’re located on the interstates. We’ve got our Spencervilles and our Mount Victorys in Ohio. But if you’re an hour and a half from an interstate in Kansas, you’re keeping it real.

I don't know how to paint a banana gourd to look like a Power Ranger.

by Fat Vegas Alan on May 8, 2008 10:59 PM EDT up reply actions

I lived in Spencerville until 7th grade,

but attended school at now defunct Mendon Union (my graduating class would have been 13). I then moved to Rockford, metropolis of 1,100 folks.

Sorry, I get excited when I actually hear the names of some places near where I lived.

"I've been rapping for about seventeen years, okay? I don't write my stuff anymore. I just kick it from my head. I can do that. No disrespect, but that's how I am."

by 3 Fast 3 Furious on May 9, 2008 9:12 AM EDT up reply actions

Nice sig

I just know it from a Ratatat song. Can you educate a brother if it comes from somewhere else?

by Brendanukkah on May 9, 2008 9:51 AM EDT up reply actions

You were correct in your original assumption.

"I've been rapping for about seventeen years, okay? I don't write my stuff anymore. I just kick it from my head. I can do that. No disrespect, but that's how I am."

by 3 Fast 3 Furious on May 9, 2008 10:19 AM EDT up reply actions

It comes from "Seventeen Years".

That and “Wildcat” (any time you can mix a wildcat growl into a song, i’m game) are two tasty jams I enjoy whilst pregaming.

"I've been rapping for about seventeen years, okay? I don't write my stuff anymore. I just kick it from my head. I can do that. No disrespect, but that's how I am."

by 3 Fast 3 Furious on May 9, 2008 10:20 AM EDT up reply actions