The Golden Age of Baseball Writing

[Edgy MD]

This is what G-FaFiF has declared our time to be, according to his blog. And I'm prone to agree, in large part because of his blog. Greg notes Fan Interference, an anthology from a paper fanzine (really? really!)



And that just looks like a great place to crawl into a corner and forget to eat for a few weeks.

I've been deeply enjoying Class A Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere, reflections from a young minor league mascot, who seems to share my belief that the health of minor league baseball is sort of symbiotic with the health of the American small town, the city, the Republic, and it's culture and economy. I highly commend and recommend.



G-FaFiF is largely right, as the death of old media has brought received but disposable old wisdoms crashing down, but the nu meritocracy takes a long time to sort through, and a lot of poseurs out there --- old guard in new clothes, new guard who only know to imitate the old --- may obscure the new angles and new understandings that can shine a gorgeous new light on the gorgeous old game, or old but neglected truths that might rise again. Share the gold you recover in the mine-shaft of contemporary baseball writing here.

[Benjamin Grimm]

So this is the opposite of the Yahoo Contributor Network thread?

I think it may be simultaneously the best of times and the worst of times.

[G-Fafif]

Said declaration made by my FAFIF partner, Mr. Fry. I won't argue his point too strenuously, however.

[TransMonk]

Edgy MD wrote: I've been deeply enjoying Class A Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere, reflections from a young minor league mascot, who seems to share my belief that the health of minor league baseball is sort of symbiotic with the health of the American small town, the city, the Republic, and it's culture and economy. I highly commend and recommend.

This is in my summer reading queue.

[Edgy MD]

G-Fafif wrote: Said declaration made by my FAFIF partner, Mr. Fry. I won't argue his point too strenuously, however.

It obviously isn't the Golden Age of reading comprehension for me.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: So this is the opposite of the Yahoo Contributor Network thread? I think it may be simultaneously the best of times and the worst of times.

That's what I'd argue.

The whole democratization of the publishing process afforded by the Internet set everyone free and that's great but also it's interesting to see that many of the emerging "winners" aren't good writers at all. Not to pick on 'em but there's Metsblog and its staff; guys like Healey aping the all the worst of the old guard; snotty new-media guys like Law; SEO driven content like Yahoo and Bleacher Report; lazy niche-based blogger frauds like MBTN.net, etc.

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: So this is the opposite of the Yahoo Contributor Network thread? I think it may be simultaneously the best of times and the worst of times. That's what I'd argue. The whole democratization of the publishing process afforded by the Internet set everyone free and that's great but also it's interesting to see that many of the emerging "winners" aren't good writers at all. Not to pick on 'em but there's Metsblog and its staff; guys like Healey aping the all the worst of the old guard; snotty new-media guys like Law; SEO driven content like Yahoo and Bleacher Report; lazy niche-based blogger frauds like MBTN.net, etc.

Oh, I think the lazy niche-based blogger frauds are the best though! But it's not about writing, it's about information and/or analysis. Things like uniform numbers, or Franco giving out ice cream, were 2 sentence blurbs that you had to keep an eye out for or you missed.

I'd love to see one of the beat guys, instead of regurgitating the game story that we can get from everywhere else, write intricate flowing prose and really stylize the game.

[Edgy MD]

That's what I go to Faith and Fear for.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Ceetar wrote: I'd love to see one of the beat guys, instead of regurgitating the game story that we can get from everywhere else, write intricate flowing prose and really stylize the game.

Not for nothing but that cannot be everyone's job. I'd agree the papers aren't doing a real good job at providing beautiful writing but do employ columnists whose job it is to provide those backstories. And guys like Rubin do an incredible volume of work that includes a fair amount of analysis-type stories. Their jobs are generally considered a real grind (travel, print/twitter/web deadlines, dealing with jocks and Wilpons), 98% of the blogosphere lives off them yet much of the twittering pretend baseball journalist society casually disrespect their work and many feel entitled to be openly hostile toward them.

[G-Fafif]

That's what I go to Faith and Fear for.

Boo-yah!

But seriously, thank you. And more seriously, I wouldn't argue it's necessarily a golden age of beat writing, but I admire the latitude WSJ gives Jared Diamond (and Brian Costa before him) to find offbeat stories daily as opposed to "The Mets did something their fans didn't expect last night: They won for a change." Andrew Keh, Jorge Castillo and Marc Carig are also consistent at writing beyond the painfully obvious. I don't really have a beef with what anybody on the Mets beat turns out these days. It is a demanding assignment and I think it's handled pretty deftly, all things considered. (Surfeit of smarmy tweets from those on the beat notwithstanding.)

At Bergino last night (thanks to the Fairy and the Mole for being on hand; The Fairy and The Mole, coming to ABC this fall!), I was asked about favorite Mets books -- with the caveat I couldn't name my own or any of Matt Silverman's (also in attendance) -- and I immediately gravitated to the canon that was produced in what may or may not have been another golden age, the Mets from Casey to Yogi, essentially. I wonder how much of that was a function of those authors, that material, the sense of something Amazin' being built in the literary capital of the world or just that I always think of those books before I think of any others and wind up giving a lengthy list of an answer before realizing I left out another dozen. Anyway, those guys from the '60s and early '70s did some great stuff, but in the context of this discussion, I wonder how much great stuff would have been known about back then had there been fewer barriers to entry the way there are today.

I'm certain there was lots of crap then, too.

[Frayed Knot]

I've been deeply enjoying Class A Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere, reflections from a young minor league mascot, who seems to share my belief that the health of minor league baseball is sort of symbiotic with the health of the American small town, the city, the Republic, and it's culture and economy. I highly commend and recommend. This is in my summer reading queue.

I just heard of that book a few days ago, probably pick it up myself.

Just finished this one:



Maybe not the greatest writing in the history of the English language, but a pretty good story.
The Southern League had disbanded after 1961 rather than agree to the order to integrate. But it revived itself in 1964 spearheaded by Birmingham, Alabama of all places despite the presence of Gov Wallace and Bull Conner. Future Met Tommy Reynolds plays a prominent role.
Author Colton played for Macon in the SL just two years later and eventually worked his baseball career into ONE major league game (2 innings pitched for the '68 Phillies).

[Edgy MD]

I would have instantly said We Won Today. Then I would have mentioned the title of a book that exists only in my mind, like Lou Niss: Travelling Secretary of the WORLD.

And then I would have fessed up that I was messing with their minds, living in the world as I would have it, not as it is, and then they'd lead me gently from the podium as I wept for my ever-slipping grasp of reality.

[G-Fafif]

We Won Today is...interesting.

[Guest themetfairy]

The Fairy and The Mole, coming to ABC this fall!

This cracks me up

[Edgy MD]

One wonders how many lawyers the Mets had to roll out to bury this thing before it hit the shelves. If only...

[G-Fafif]

CHAPTER ONE
Nissed Off? You Bet I Am!

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'd watch that show!

[G-Fafif]

CHAPTER TWO
"You Mean Columbus, GEORGIA,
Not Columbus, OHIO???"

[G-Fafif]

CHAPTER THREE
M. Donald Grant Made Me Book Us
Into This French-Canadian Shithole

[G-Fafif]

CHAPTER FOUR
He Wasn't So Terrific About His
Cy Young Being Shipped To Luxembourg

[Edgy MD]

CHAPTER TWELVE
"I Can't Apologize ENOUGH":
The Night Ron Hodges Messed the Bed

[G-Fafif]

CHAPTER FIVE
Cleon, If You Want Me To
Knock Next Time, Just Say So

[Edgy MD]

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
What Makes a Giant Cry:
Keeping Kingman Away from Kathy Rigby

[G-Fafif]

CHAPTER SIX
Believe Me, Teddy Martinez
Habla PLENTY Of English

[G-Fafif]

CHAPTER SEVEN
Foy Vey, Was That Guy High!

[Edgy MD]

Teddy Martinez. Nice.

CHAPTER Twenty-Four
When Pigs Fly:
Fishing Your Bullpen Coach
Out of the Monogahela

[G-Fafif]

CHAPTER EIGHT
Sheriff Robinson Actually Thought He Was A
Sheriff And Other Adventures With Airport Security

[G-Fafif]

CHAPTER NINE
What Schmuck Packed The Helmet Day
Helmets Instead Of The Real Ones?

[G-Fafif]

CHAPTER TEN
So His Ticket Said "Matlock" Instead
Of Matlack -- What A Touchy Bastard

[G-Fafif]

EPILOGUE
Keep An Eye On This Samuels Kid,
There's Something Fishy There