Birth of a Fan Author:Ron Fimrite (Editor) Birth of a Fan is a book about baseball. But more importantly, it is a book about relationships. A book about how baseball has become a lifelong friend and a neverending passion for millions everywhere, a shared experience of joy and sadness, patience and exultation. As Jim Bouton noted in closing Ball Four, "You spend a good bit of your li... more »fe gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time."
Noted sportswriter and critic Ron Fimrite asked fifteen literary all-stars to join him in reflecting on how a baseball came to put its grip on their lives. For some the relationship with the national pastime was a product of childhood; others embraced baseball later in life. But, each essayist concludes, for better or worse they are all bonded to the game for life: daily purveyors (and proofreaders) of box scores. Hopelessly addicted to green grass and blue skies. Seduced each spring by the Sirens' song "This is the year that we're gonna win the pennant!" Each of these sixteen never-before-published first-person accounts uniquely explores the author's fascination with baseball. Humorous and poignant, Birth of a Fan is a book about rediscovery. Written with style and depth, this book will find a place in the heart of every devoted fan of baseball and literature.
Includes: Early innings / Roger Angell; Baseball in my blood / Roy Blount, Jr.; Hating Doris / Mary Cantwell; Pop Watts, a newspaper, and a day at the polo grounds / Robert W. Creamer; Coming to baseball ... but not necessarily being loved back / Frank Deford; Win some, lose some / Ron Fimrite; George Selkirk's double in the sixth / Blair Fuller; The bonding / Mark Harris; Here's your son, Mister, or How I became a baseball fan / William Kennedy; The psychic hat / Anne Lamott; Surrogate family / J. Anthony Lukas; A love of fungo / George Plimpton; Baseball memories / Stephanie Salter; A fan reborn / Robert Whiting; Stuck for life / Jonathan Yardley; A Letter from Nora Ephron.« less