The Heavenly World Series: Timeless Baseball Fiction - Hardcover

O'Rourke, Frank

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786709502 ISBN 13: 9780786709502

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 2002

Synopsis

With freshness and empathy during the 1940s and 1950s, Frank O’Rourke created a world of baseball fiction as evocative as a dusty rural diamond or Wrigley Field’s ivied walls. In this richly enjoyable collection of O’Rourke’s work—the first in nearly fifty years and including six stories never before in book form—his heroes compete alongside such real baseball greats as Roy Campanella, Joe DiMaggio, and Willie Mays, while confronting the all-too-human limitations of injury, age, and envy. In “The Catcher,” the longtime star of the St. Louis Blues returns for a game facing his old team and the heartless owner who traded him away. “One Ounce of Common Sense” portrays a dramatic pennant race in which a veteran shortstop counsels a young teammate at odds with the team owner during contract negotiations, only to be benched for this so-called insubordination. And in “Nothing New,” a player modeled on the young Jackie Robinson strides across the color line and makes history with an unforgettable dash around the bases. O’Rourke captures the essence of baseball in elegiac, unsentimentalized fiction that will endure as long as fans of the national pastime love the game.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Red Smith on Frank O'Rourke: "Marked by a special, endearing quality . . . capture[s] the authentic flavor of the dugout or the diamond or the press box or the locker room . . . which the reader comes to know first-hand through O'Rourke's words."

From the Back Cover:

"Until now, Frank O'Rourke has been one of the unappreciated jewels of American literature, though it's hard to believe he'll remain overlooked once this collection hits the bookshops. Apart from being a professional's professional, and a master storyteller who knew how to hook you in the first paragraph and hold you with his glittering eye thereafter, there was real poetry in his work, and real humor as well. Great baseball journalism flourishes today as never before. Yet truly believable baseball fiction is very scarce, once you get past Ring Lardner and Mark Harris. THE HEAVENLY WORLD SERIES belongs honorably, in that heavenly league. It's wonderful to have O'Rourke back, and to have this collection in my hands." --Peter S. Beagle, author of TAMSIN

"Well-honed baseball fiction is as rare as game-winning triples. Now we have O'Rourke's warm and human work to match up with Ring Lardner, Bernard Malamud, Eliot Asinof, and Arnlold Hano." --Ray Robinson, author of IRON HORSE: LOU GEHRIG IN HIS TIME

"A collection of stories full of characters with character: Umpires who suffer terrible indignities for their love of the game and scouts who value integrity and attitude over raw, smart-alecky talent. THE HEAVENLY WORLD SERIES is Dr. Feelgood for these days when the big baseball story is the potential elimination of two teams and the lawsuits that will inevitably spawn." --Bill Littlefield, host of NPR's "Only a Game"

"Baseball is fact and fiction at the same time. The best writers know this, and the players do, too. O'Rourke was a writer fans loved and players trusted, and his stories combine rich history and action in a way that keeps the sport alive. Accept no substitutes: this is the McCoy." --Jerry Klinkowitz, author of OWNING A PIECE OF THE MINORS

About this edition

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0786709502
• ISBN 13: 9780786709502
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320