Description:
The ideal pitch for a hitter is a fastball that hangs over the plate long enough to be knocked beyond the outfield fence. Home Run, a literary tribute to batters with a knack for the long ball, presents accounts of some of the most famous home runs in baseball history. In this smart collection edited by George Plimpton, some of the best writers on baseball (Robert W. Creamer, Roger Angell) and some of the best American writers, period (Don DeLillo, John Updike), provide unique portraits of famous sluggers (Ruth, Williams, Aaron, and Josh Gibson, to name a few), their myths, and the circumstances of famous home runs (with nods to the pitchers who served them up). And as a bonus, Plimpton includes a chronology describing a century's worth of milestones. These writers do vastly more than document baseball history: they write about something they love, and write with conviction. For example, Japanese ballplayer Sadaharu Oh, who hit 868 career homers (to Aaron's 755), describes the feeling of hitting one out in "A Zen Way of Baseball": "As the ball makes its high, long arc beyond the playing field, the diamond and the stands suddenly belong to one man. In that brief, brief time you are free of all demands and complications.... In this moment [you] are free." --Michael Ferch
| 
