Even with the World Series having been won by St. Louis and
the Major League Baseball season officially over for this year, I didn't want
my own personal baseball season to end.
The 2011 version of the fall classic was an exciting series, to be sure, particularly the eleven innings
of game six. This year, I was off in a
far-flung part of the world and could not watch any of the games, so I listened
on ESPN radio. Thanks to the great
announcing and hearing the roar of the crowds along with the muted inaudible
words of the ballpark announcer, I could picture the game action in my
mind. Not at all hard to do.
I grew up watching and playing baseball, as do so many kids
in America, parts of Canada and a few other places in the world. Just looking at where the many very good international
players at the Little League World Series come from gives you a good idea where
they play baseball. Growing up, I saw
some fantastic baseball, much of it played by young people. I saw some incredibly skilled kids playing
some amazing baseball. Some of them were
the inspiration for my main character in Playing the Baseball Card. I regret I was not very coordinated myself,
and became more of a spectator, but that has never stopped me from grabbing my
glove and enjoying a pick-up game from time to time, as a kid or as an adult.
For me, today, the best way to watch baseball is at a minor
league park, or at a high school, or a neighborhood field, where I can be right
next to the action to hear it all as well as see it. The drama of baseball is amazing, either at a
local little league game or in the major leagues. The more you know about the players and
what’s going on behind the scenes, the more you get out of each game. There’s a story behind every single pitch,
and every swing of the bat.
So, given my love of baseball, I often have a hard time when
the official season is done. This year
was no exception. So, I watched a baseball
movie, The Final Season, about small-town high school baseball in
Iowa. The DVD cover has a reviewer from
Seattle's KIRO TV calling it, “Friday night
lights meets the Field of Dreams.”
I agree. It is a great story, and a
terrific movie, and I enjoyed it.
Then, I re-read my own book, Playing the Baseball Card. (You can find it right here, in multiple formats, at Smashwords, for free.) I enjoyed reading it once more, although I again picked out a
bit of word usage I didn’t like. I’ll
have to send the book for spring training before next season, to update and
edit it a bit.
I also looked for other
baseball fiction. In looking for
‘Baseball’ on Barnes and Noble, I discovered that my book, Playing the Baseball Card,
is the top-ranked fiction book when sorting by best sellers using the search word ‘baseball,’ behind four
non-fiction books.
However, I did find a lot more Baseball fiction further down
the list, and some of the books look very good.
I read one called, High Heat, by Carl Deuker, and I
liked it. I sometimes refer to reading
fiction for Young Adults as ‘checking out the competitors’ to see what other YA
authors are writing. But, that’s the
nice thing about reading. You don’t have
to stop at one book. You can read many
more, as long as you have the time, of course.
Now, a few days after the celebration of the World Series
victory in St. Louis, I will now admit my own personal baseball season is
finally over. The best thing is,
however, that it’ll start again next year.
I can’t wait.
In the meantime, happy reading.
Wil
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