Extra Innings

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 exposs 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.