We might as well start in on this author now, because we've got a lot of her books to get through!
Title: Foul Balls
Published: General Paperbacks, 1986 (expanded edition with a chapter about the 1985 Jays)
# pages: 223
Availability: out of print, and indigo.com can't help you, but used copies are plentiful.
Author: Alison Gordon
Who Is: Gordon was the Toronto Star's beat writer covering the Jays from 1979 through 1983. She then went on to write a quintet of mystery novels (which we'll get to!), and was, famously, the four-millionth fan to come through the SkyDome gates in 1991; at the time this was a major league attendance record. I wonder what she's up to now. I found a blog comment by Gordon on a book review site circa 2004 that says she's 'living happily ever after', which I'm glad about, but that doesn't really answer the question.
What It's About: It's about Gordon's experiences covering the Jays in their early years. But it's important to understand Gordon's approach here: she's not an analyst. Her interest is in the *experience* of baseball, sensory, emotional and intellectual. She's not trying to *figure out* baseball; she's trying to get at *what it's like*.
Secret Hero: Earl Weaver, whose Orioles beat the snot out of the Jays regularly during Gordon's tenure with the team, and who always treated Gordon with professionalism and affection.
How's the Writing? It's good. Gordon's affection for the game and its people come through in the prose, and she's got a sense of humour, too. She's able to find something interesting about every aspect of the game she touches on, and she casts her net widely. She writes about the off-season, about winter ball, about stadiums, about the difficulties of being a woman reporter (think about the title of the book again!), about APBA, about the minor leagues. Man, this book made me want to learn to play APBA. (Much the same way that the novelization of E.T. made me want to learn to play Dungeons and Dragons.) Never did, though...
One of the gaps in Blue Jays literature is an account of the 1983 pennant race, the one in which the Jays contended for the first time ever, until the bullpen fell apart in August and Tippy Martinez picked off the side in the tenth, inaugurating the Blow Jays era. Gordon's account of that period in this book is probably as close as we're ever going to get.
This is one of the better books ever written about the Jays. I've read it lots of times and I have no doubt that I'll be returning to it again.
Sabremetric Corner: Gordon uses no more stats than she has to. Won-lost record, batting average, that's about it. But then, she doesn't really want anything *from* the stats.
In chapter 6, Gordon outlines the different classifications of baseball writers. One of them is 'The Number Crunchers'. Gordon calls them "the spiritual progeny of Bill James [...] and they would quantify all the joy out of baseball if they could." Her real problems with sabremetricians are that a) baseball might eventually take them seriously, and b) they might figure out all of baseball and then there'd be no point in playing the actual games. She finishes with, "Let the number crunchers play with their computers. I'd rather go to a ball game." Oh well; she doesn't get it.
Anecdote: As you might imagine, given her approach, Gordon has a *lot* of anecdotes. My favourite is probably Tim Johnson's putdown of Rico Carty: the team's poster that year was of Carty, kneeling on one knee and leaning on a bat, flashing his famous charming smile. Johnson put up the poster in the locker room, with the caption, "Here's Rico, running out a ground ball."
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I think I need some more categories with which to discuss these books, and make these pieces a bit longer. Any suggestions?WW
Title: Foul Balls
Published: General Paperbacks, 1986 (expanded edition with a chapter about the 1985 Jays)
# pages: 223
Availability: out of print, and indigo.com can't help you, but used copies are plentiful.
Author: Alison Gordon
Who Is: Gordon was the Toronto Star's beat writer covering the Jays from 1979 through 1983. She then went on to write a quintet of mystery novels (which we'll get to!), and was, famously, the four-millionth fan to come through the SkyDome gates in 1991; at the time this was a major league attendance record. I wonder what she's up to now. I found a blog comment by Gordon on a book review site circa 2004 that says she's 'living happily ever after', which I'm glad about, but that doesn't really answer the question.
What It's About: It's about Gordon's experiences covering the Jays in their early years. But it's important to understand Gordon's approach here: she's not an analyst. Her interest is in the *experience* of baseball, sensory, emotional and intellectual. She's not trying to *figure out* baseball; she's trying to get at *what it's like*.
Secret Hero: Earl Weaver, whose Orioles beat the snot out of the Jays regularly during Gordon's tenure with the team, and who always treated Gordon with professionalism and affection.
How's the Writing? It's good. Gordon's affection for the game and its people come through in the prose, and she's got a sense of humour, too. She's able to find something interesting about every aspect of the game she touches on, and she casts her net widely. She writes about the off-season, about winter ball, about stadiums, about the difficulties of being a woman reporter (think about the title of the book again!), about APBA, about the minor leagues. Man, this book made me want to learn to play APBA. (Much the same way that the novelization of E.T. made me want to learn to play Dungeons and Dragons.) Never did, though...
One of the gaps in Blue Jays literature is an account of the 1983 pennant race, the one in which the Jays contended for the first time ever, until the bullpen fell apart in August and Tippy Martinez picked off the side in the tenth, inaugurating the Blow Jays era. Gordon's account of that period in this book is probably as close as we're ever going to get.
This is one of the better books ever written about the Jays. I've read it lots of times and I have no doubt that I'll be returning to it again.
Sabremetric Corner: Gordon uses no more stats than she has to. Won-lost record, batting average, that's about it. But then, she doesn't really want anything *from* the stats.
In chapter 6, Gordon outlines the different classifications of baseball writers. One of them is 'The Number Crunchers'. Gordon calls them "the spiritual progeny of Bill James [...] and they would quantify all the joy out of baseball if they could." Her real problems with sabremetricians are that a) baseball might eventually take them seriously, and b) they might figure out all of baseball and then there'd be no point in playing the actual games. She finishes with, "Let the number crunchers play with their computers. I'd rather go to a ball game." Oh well; she doesn't get it.
Anecdote: As you might imagine, given her approach, Gordon has a *lot* of anecdotes. My favourite is probably Tim Johnson's putdown of Rico Carty: the team's poster that year was of Carty, kneeling on one knee and leaning on a bat, flashing his famous charming smile. Johnson put up the poster in the locker room, with the caption, "Here's Rico, running out a ground ball."
--
I think I need some more categories with which to discuss these books, and make these pieces a bit longer. Any suggestions?WW
