Thanks to the Internet Review of Books for the superb write-up about Down to the Last Pitch.
Here's the closing:
"(The) games are just the platform, the launch pad for remembrances, sidetracks and conjectures. Frank Robinson tells us that the sound of a home run is so pure even a blind man can know when it’s leaving the park. We learn about the Atlanta rally cap, Jane Fonda, Ted Turner and the chop, and why second basemen are always picked last in sandlot games. We get F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Buddha’s dance of mindfulness. ...
"Everybody knows the series went seven games, everybody remembers who won, almost every fan knows four games went extra innings. But somehow Wendel keeps it fresh and exciting. And oh by the way, the television boys got it wrong. The 1991 World Series was the fifth most-watched series of all time and no World Series has come close to its rating ever since. Wendel calls that series 'one of the last fine times,' and maybe it was. It sure made a hell of a book."
Here's the closing:
"(The) games are just the platform, the launch pad for remembrances, sidetracks and conjectures. Frank Robinson tells us that the sound of a home run is so pure even a blind man can know when it’s leaving the park. We learn about the Atlanta rally cap, Jane Fonda, Ted Turner and the chop, and why second basemen are always picked last in sandlot games. We get F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Buddha’s dance of mindfulness. ...
"Everybody knows the series went seven games, everybody remembers who won, almost every fan knows four games went extra innings. But somehow Wendel keeps it fresh and exciting. And oh by the way, the television boys got it wrong. The 1991 World Series was the fifth most-watched series of all time and no World Series has come close to its rating ever since. Wendel calls that series 'one of the last fine times,' and maybe it was. It sure made a hell of a book."