Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
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Also this issue: Worlds of Wonder 20/20 Vision “A Night at the Casbah” Louis Faurer: A Photographic Retrospective Sherman Alexie Bloomsday Celebration Frankie Avalon A Picasso |
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June 12-18, 2003
artpicks
Baseball panel discussion
The crack of the corked bat, the sound of the juiced-up horsehide hitting the glove of the juiced-up player. While the guys on the field (and in the front office) often give baseball a black eye, the national pastime has always been served well by the writing profession. Today, five of the game's top authors stop by the Free Library to discuss their new books. Moderator Nicholas Dawidoff edited Baseball: A Literary Anthology and wrote The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg, about the big leaguer/WWII OSS agent. Roger Angell, by any measure the finest baseball essayist of all time, has just published Game Time: A Baseball Companion. David Halberstam's The Teammates details the relationship between 1940s Red Sox greats Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr and their mentor, Ted Williams. Michael Lewis authored this spring's most-discussed sports book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, or how the Oakland Athletics' GM built a great team on a small budget through sabermetrics (the study of baseball statistics). Philly's own Joe Queenan made a career of dissecting American kitsch; in True Believers: The Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans, he examines why we root so hard for kitschy sports teams. That he's a lifelong Phillies fan is the merest of coincidences.
Baseball panel discussion, Thu., June 12, 7 p.m., free, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., 215-686-5322.
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