Late Innings

by Roger Angell

Alternate cover edition for ISBN 0671425676

Incisive, personal reporting that covers the five most recent baseball seasons and such events as Reggie Jackson's three World Series home runs, the triumph of the Phillies, and the bitter ordeal of the 1981 players' strike.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, Essays

Paperback

First published April 1, 1982

About the author

Roger Angell (b. 1920) is a celebrated New Yorker writer and editor. First published in the magazine in 1944, he became a fiction editor and regular contributor in 1956; and remains as a senior editor and staff writer. In addition to seven classic books on baseball, which include The Summer Game (1972), Five Seasons (1977), and Season Ticket (1988), he has written works of fiction, humor, and a memoir, Let Me Finish (2006).

Reviews

[Tom Gase · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a few things from this book. One, the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates used to be good. Honest truth. The second thing I learned is that nobody writes about baseball better than Roger Angell. Nobody.

I wish Roger Angell was still writing baseball books, because nobody has ever written about a sport better than he writes about the national pastime. I had previously read Five Seasons, and Season Ticket before reading Late Innings, which focuses on the baseball years 1977 through 1981. As always, Angell's writings take me back and make me want to look at my old baseball cards. This book I believe was his best, not only because his descriptions of the seasons described are stellar, but also some of his writings on Smokey Joe Wood watching a baseball game in 1981, the issue of women in the pressbox and baseball clubhouses, and a great final story on a man and his wife watching the husband pitch in a semi-pro league are second to none as far as sports writings. I recommend this book for any baseball fan, especially those who remember the years 1977 though 1981. Five stars for this book all the way.

[Emma Strawbridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

finally done! this was long and winding and did not need to be over 400 pages because i was not interested in season recaps for five years (including spring training and playoffs). however the player interviews were fascinating and i think roger is a great writer who uses fun adjectives to talk about baseball more like 3.5 stars.

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started reading this in late May, upon notification of the author's passing. The late 1970s saw baseball owners push back against free agency, publicly and privately - the strike of 1981 closes this collection.

Angell is firmly on the side of the players here. He points out where the owners (successfully) painted the players as greedy, despite causing problems that continue to the present day. In addition to the money concerns, this era saw the retirement of some of Angell's heroes from the 50s and 60s. He speculates on the declining popularity of the major leagues, and yet other essays show the game itself is still beloved - the last essay especially.

Like the previous collection, this has some really excellent essays - and a few that ramble a bit. One of my favorites was the minor league game between future stars Ron Darling and Frank Viola, attended and commented on by one of my favorite players, the deadball era's Smoky Joe Wood, and future analytics legend Bill James. Another article with a solid subject, though not as focused, was on women in the clubhouse and locker room.

Looking forward to the next collection, whose 5 year span (1982-87) will encompass the collision of his two favorite teams in a memorable (and heart-breaking) world series.

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

From 1977 to 1981, I was in high school and I pored over the baseball statistic pages of The Sporting News, read boxscores in my daily newspaper and consumed as much baseball as I could, both going to games, listening to broadcasts and watching telecasts. I also was listening and playing lots of music and doing my best to kiss girls, but that's another story.

This excellent book by Roger Angell (the only non-beat reporter elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame) covers these years. The book meanders through each year, covering such titans as Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton. From lazy spring training games to thrilling pennant races, rising salaries and economic changes, contemporary players and old timers alike, Angell has something of a poetic take on the game, while still being pragmatic about the changing nuances.

Pick up any book by Angell and get lost in baseball. This book...

Highly recommended!

[Patrick Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book by the man who I consider is the best sportswriter of my time. The book covers the 1977 through 1981. . One great essay follows another in this book climaxing with the lunacy of the 1981 baseball strike. Simply great writing

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of Angell’s baseball writing—his third—covers the years 1977-1981, a particularly meaningful period of baseball history for me, since during these years I first began to collect baseball cards and learn the players’ names and pore over the statistics and try to understand the complexities of the game. Angell writes of both the game itself and cultural issues connected to the game—for example, the sexism that was finally acknowledged when female sportswriters sued for locker room access and the hegemony that needed to be challenged in order to eradicate the reserve clause and empower players through the advent of free agency (which led, of course, to the 1981 players’ strike).

As always, Angell’s command of the language is elegant and evocative—the artistry of his prose is simply unmatched among baseball writers. He is a baseball historian, an erudite student of the game, an analyst, and the sport’s most eloquent fan.

[Chris Schaffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd probably give a 5 star rating to any Roger Angell baseball book. He is the greatest baseball writer there is, was or ever will be in my opinion. This book covers the 1977-1981 seasons, chronicling each season from Spring Training on, with vignettes along the way on Bob Gibson, the legendary St. John's-Yale game of 1981, semi-professional baseball leagues and more. If there's one gripe it's that with relation to the 1981 season, very little details are offered on the season and post-season.

[Sean Seagreaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another terrific read. Right in my wheelhouse, covering baseball in the late 70’s to 1981. The two best excerpts are not MLB related in my opinion. In “in the Web of the Game” Angel recounts attending the famous St. John’s vs. Yale (Viola vs. Darling) NCAA regional game with 91 year old Smokey Joe Wood and it’s a terrific look at some future pitching starts (in 1981) through the eyes of a World Series hero from 1912. The last chapter - In the Country, introduces Ron Goble and Linda Kittell and how baseball touches their lives, far from the lights of a major league park. Just tremendous.

[Fred Daly · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is very interesting to read Angell many years later and remember how unsettled the baseball landscape was in the late 1970s. He deplored a lot of the changes, and of course MLB has doubled down on exactly those things. One of the best chapters was written during the 1981 strike, when he spent time with semipro players whose passion for the game was a welcome antidote to the destructive greed that almost destroyed the major leagues.

[Libraryscat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved baseball ~ from the 7th grade where I learned how to keep score in little boxes to this day a die-hard Braves fan. This compilation of facts ad statistics and joys and defeats and players took me back to the old days and I loved it. Thanks to Jeannie who gave all her baseball books to Nicole, I have a new category of books to enjoy!

[Michael Zeolla · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chapters that are simply summarizing events from the season are tough to read through. What makes Roger Angell so great is when he’s talking about the people of the game and what makes baseball great—that’s his specialty. The chapters about labor relations, women in the media, Bob Gibson, Smokey Joe Wood, and a minor league player and his wife are the highlights of the book

[Daniel Lanzillotta · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I’ve been reading a baseball book every March and October, as the season starts and ends, for the last few years. Making by way through Roger Angell’s chronicles, here from 1977-1981, has been a treat. The way the game changes- explanation, more playoffs, more money and fights between labor and ownership over who should get it- never really changes.

[Jim Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book of New Yorker essays about baseball by a man who probably writes about the sport better than anyone.

[Tim Duff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on baseball during the 1978 - 1981 seasons including talk about the strike, free agency, etc. Roger Angell is a great baseball writer.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Roger Angelo classic

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well done but not quite as good as some of his other efforts.

[Steve Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a baseball fan and a lover of nonfiction, this book is like eating chocolate.

[cass · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always gorgeous... really moving last story. Sports, like everything, mean only what they mean to people; sports mean a lot.

[Randal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am generally a fan of Angell's writing, but not this book:
He's constantly looking behind the scenes, instead of at the game, and the whole peek-behind-the-curtain look at a baseball writer's life has gotten old, somehow;
I don't really care about baseball's 1980-81 labor issues, however trenchant the copy was at the time, nor does it matter much who went 13-for-27 in a big-league call-up when we can look up the rest of their career in hindsight;
The players and even the game he writes about are gone. One of the pieces is about a visit to Smoky Joe Wood, then in his 90s, at a Yale-St. John's game, featuring Frank Viola vs. Ron Darling (called "Don Darling" at one point) on their respective mounds. Part way through, Angell notes that Wood played for 13 years and has been retelling the same stories for the intervening 60 years. So he needs to tell the reader that Tris Speaker's nickname with his teammates was "Spoke," although given the target readers it's likely not needed to introduce Speaker. These pieces were originally meant as magazine stories to last a month -- six in a doctor's waiting room -- and have now been in circulation for 35 years. Like Smoky Joe's reminiscences, they lose something as they age.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

About two-thirds through, I don't think I'm going to finish this one up. Maybe I will another time. It's very well written but it's generally focused on the late 70s/early 80s and not presented in a broad context. There is a lot of detail about certain performances of that moment which stopped holding my interest after a while... like the articles about past Spring Trainings. These were relevant articles at the time, for the most part, but now just read as an archive. Now that there is actual baseball being played, too, I'd rather focus on that.

Of most interest is how all the arguments about labor/management were exactly the same then.

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

More great baseball writing from Roger Angell - he doesnt produce anything less. I particularly enjoy going back to the "period" reports, as many of the issues raised, and the author's thoughts on them, have now played out (and mostly not in a good way).
Yet Mr Angell's writing always delivers the beauty and the thrill of baseball, and the joy in maturing along with the great players over the years.
I recommend all of the author's baseball books for a fan interested in its history - not a view from 10000 feet, but one from the trenches.

[Chuck Fannin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of Angell's baseball anthologies. What makes this one special, in my opinion, is "Distance", the profile of Bob Gibson. Gibson's intensity and pursuit of excellence practically leap off the printed page. It makes me wish I had seen him in his prime.

If you have never read anything by Roger Angell before, then start with "The Summer Game". (Plus, you'll get some Bob Gibson in the chapter on the '68 Series. Go Tigers.)

But if you are a Bob Gibson Fan, read this. The rest is excellent, as well.

Also recommended for Gibson fans: "October, 1964" by David Halberstam.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Late Innings is a little more somber than his other works; the player strikes and owner lockouts, fading popularity of baseball in America, the retirement of his heroes from the 50s and 60s. It isn't his best work, and I'd rather reread The Summer Game or Five Seasons instead, but still miles above most other baseball writing.

[Homerun2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully enjoyable for baseball fans. Even though the players and situations he describes are now decades old, much of what he has to say about the game is timeless.

My favorite columns: women sports reporters in the locker room, and the visit with his penpal and her boyfriend/pro baseball aspirant.

Beautifully written, sharply insightful.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly literate account of the national pastime from the seasons 1977 10 1981. They were originally articles in the New Yorker magazine. Interestingly there was a footnote that mentioned Bill James who had been one of the pioneers of the present day analytics movement.

[Vickie · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of America's most skillful baseball writers. Baseball before The Strike, when it was lost to me, seemingly forever.

[Brian Schnack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hall inductee Angell's ode to the dusk of baseball. A wayback machine. Somber is a good word for it. Final chapter - In the Country - is the best baseball I've read since A False Spring.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply, my favorite baseball book of all time. There's simply no better scribe out there than Roger Angell.