Lineup for Yesterday

by Ogden Nash, Chris Payne, Linell Nash Smith (Introduction)

In 1949, SPORT magazine published Lineup for Yesterday, a collection of poems by Ogden Nash celebrating the greatest big-league baseball players of the 1800s and early 1900s. Using an alphabetical approach, the famous wordsmith paid entertaining tribute to 24 legends of the diamond, encapsulating each in just 4 clever lines. Creative Editions is proud to present this masterpiece to a new generation of fans, reintroducing icons from the formative years of professional baseball. The masterful mixed-media illustrations of C. F. Payne portray these heroes of summer in their athletic primes in this, the first-ever picture book publication of Nash s classic.

Genres: Poetry, Sports, Baseball, Picture Books, Historical Fiction

56 pages, Hardcover

First published August 24, 2011

About the author

Frederic Ogden Nash was an American poet well known for his light verse. At the time of his death in 1971, the New York Times said his "droll verse with its unconventional rhymes made him the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry".

Reviews

[Ardea Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title / Author / Publication Date: Lineup for Yesterday/ Ogden Nash/2011

Genre: Non-Fiction, Picture Book, Biographies

Format: Hardcover

Plot summary: In 1949, SPORT magazine published Lineup for Yesterday, a collection of poems by Ogden Nash celebrating the greatest big-league baseball players of the 1800s and early 1900s. Using an alphabetical approach, the famous wordsmith paid entertaining tribute to 24 legends of the diamond, encapsulating each in just 4 clever lines. Creative Editions is proud to present this masterpiece to a new generation of fans, reintroducing icons from the formative years of professional baseball. The masterful mixed-media illustrations of C. F. Payne portray these heroes of summer in their athletic primes in this, the first-ever picture book publication of Nash's classic. (GoodReads)

Considerations or precautions for readers advisory: None. Perfect for sports enthusiast.

Review citation: (2011). Lineup for Yesterday (Book Review). Kirkus Reviews Issue.

Section source used to find the material: Children's Core Collection, Most Highly Recommended

Recommended age: 8 and up

[Frodo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful! This beautifully designed book of poetry and biographical sketches of baseball greats from the late 1800's and early 1900's was delightful to read by this baseball fan. Nash's poems and the illustrations by Payne were a welcome addition to my afternoon reading.

[Michael Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful gift for Father's Day that I will cherish. I wasn't up to speed on the Ogden Nash poem and have fallen in love with the illustrations. This is an every year read as the season starts.

[Tom Roby · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite poets writing about my favorite sport. And the illustrations are great. And it’s about baseball history, with his daughter adding stories about him and about the players. A real winning combination.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful ABC book of old time baseball greats like Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Dizzy Dean, Walter Johnson who played for their LOVE of the game not millions of $$$$! This is a beautiful picture book illustrated by C.F. Payne that includes excellent biographical sketches of each player named in this Ogden Nash classic. The biographical sketches were written by Odgen's daughter Linell Nash Smith to accompany Nash's poetry for each player in the bygone era. Learned that Ogden Nash was a lifelong baseball fan! Cute illustration of him at the baseball park under what else O! Pattie, you will LOVE this one!

[Miri Gifford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit, I wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't seen that the author was Ogden Nash. I don't care about baseball, like, even a little bit. But I enjoyed this book. Nash's poems are always whimsical and fun to read, and I even found the subject a little bit interesting, probably because of the fact that his fandom was so obvious and kind of endearing. I don't care about baseball—but maybe baseball history is a little more interesting than the sport itself.

[Susan Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good book to read to/with different levels of readers. Each page is a baseball player of the past, in alphabetical order of course, with a short poem. The poems alone make it a good book that a younger reader would enjoy. Every several pages, there is a page of biographies of those players that a more advanced reader would enjoy. There are full-color illustrations on every page (caricatures of each player). My baseball fan husband even enjoyed reading it.

[Shannonmde]

Ogden Nash Poetry with pretty pictures. Alphabet ABCs. Apparently there's YouTube footage of Larry King reading this poem many years on opening day. -- nice to see so many early St. Louis baseball players (from the Browns and the Cardinals days)

I think I would prefer the baseball bio stuff at the end rather than in the middle.

[Horace Mann Family Reading Challenge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned about all the baseball legends. J.R.

[Doug Ridenhour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun. Ogden Nash and baseball. What could be better?