Baseball's Best Short Stories

by Paul D. Staudohar (Editor)

This anthology brings together twenty-eight exceptional short stories about the great game of baseball. Written over several decades by some of America's favorite writers, including Zane Grey, James Thurber, Robert Penn Warren, T. Coraghessan Boyle, and Chet Williamson, many of the stories are about the game itself; others use baseball as a backdrop for timeless themes, such as morality, greed, and love.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Short Stories, Fiction, Collections

404 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection of short stories about baseball from a variety of authors. I especially liked "Horseshoes" by Ring Lardner, where the Philadelphia "Ath-a-letics" and the New York Giants played in the "World Serious"; also "The Crambury Tiger" by Arthur Baer which included this great line: "Nippers had the general appearance of an accident looking for a lawyer and he had a profile you could saw lumber with."

[M.L.D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of stories that I skimmed or skipped entirely. I got really tired of the bulk of the women in these stories being the Delilah--you know, having power over a baseball player's skill, either ruining it (love makes you incapable of playing baseball!) or escalating it (he's so happy in love, he can't be stopped!). Even then, there aren't a lot of women in this, and just the barest acknowledgement that women & girls are fans, too--or *gasp* can play ball! I would have given a lot to have read a single goddamned story about the Girls Professional Baseball League.

That being said, the story I found the most offensive was the literary effort that had the protagonist *choosing* to get gangrene in his leg and having it amputated, because it...dragged his teenaged son out of his angry Goth phase? FFS.

The stories I liked the best: The Pitcher & the Plutocrat by P. G. Wodehouse and A Family Game by Brendan DuBois.

[Matt Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories contains some absolute classics: Alibi Ike, Casey at the Bat, and Horseshoes, to name a few. It's worth a read for those alone. The other selections are interesting and also reflect the time when this collection was assembled, which I'm old enough to remember. That's probably the reason my copy was withdrawn from the library, because 25 years after the 1994 strike ended baseball is in a much different place.

Anyway, if I'm recommending other selections from here, I definitely enjoyed Baseball Hattie (a good companion to Bull Durham, if you ask me), You Could Look It Up, and Ghandi at the Bat. Who's on First? might be the most peculiar of the stories, but as a fan of sci-fi I find it the one I'm still thinking about.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I should have enjoyed this more, but just couldn't get into it. Had a couple of 5* stories. I played a lot of baseball in my youth; but no longer enjoy the game; probably because I'm disgusted with the juicing scandals of the last 20 years and the $100 million prima-donnas. I sure those factors tainted my subconscious thinking throughout the book.

[Natalie Bryan]

I don’t feel like I can accurately give a star rating to this collection as a whole. A lot of these stories were solid, a couple were excellent, several weren’t to my taste at all. Overall an enjoyable read, though it took me a while to get through.

[Sherilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I expected. Eclectic baseball stories; some quirky, some funny, some odd, some tender. Glad I decided to put on the 2019 Summer List during the season.

[Dave Estela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice short stories about the game from various authors including Garrison Keller, Frank Deford, Zane Gray, and others from the early 1900s to the mid 80's, when the book was published.

[Ike · Rating 3 out of 5]

One word = everything

[Dale Bentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of old-time baseball classics!

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Baseball's Best Short Stories" is a collection of 28 stories written between 1888 and 1991. My favorite was titled "Smoke", by Michael Chabon. It is the tale of a major league pitcher at the end of his career attending the unexpected funeral of his battery mate. Everything in this story seems to fit the title, the quickly dissolving solidity that is smoke....the appearance of a fastball to the batter, the brief time at the pinnacle of talent for a professional athlete, and even the uncertainty of life itself. I thought it was very well done.

There are a wide variety of topics addressed in this book (though all are tied to the theme of baseball)and many different writing styles as well. Almost any reader will find something enjoyable in this collection.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Major League Baseball hasn't been exactly subtle about trying to emphasize the "timelessness" of baseball. And, to be fair, I think that will forever be one of the sport's great strengths. At the same time, however, reading this collection of stories really made me think about how much the game has changed. I found myself wishing more than once that the stories in this collection had been put in a more chronological order, rather than bouncing around the last century.

It's a good collection, though. Many of the stories aren't really about baseball, but there was enough of a thread to help tie together a fairly disparate group of stories.

[The Scrivener's Quill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all the stories in this collection are home runs. I would say there are clearly a few. "Casey at Bat" is always a favorite. The next on my list would be "Brooklyns Lose" by William Heuman. This was a touching story about how the home town responds when the home team loses, especially when the team has the game in the bag, or at least until the final seconds. Fun collection.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories were well written, and often unexpected. They weren't generally about baseball games; but about the lives of people who were involved in baseball.
I enjoyed most of the stories and found the characters both interesting and engaging.

[Walter Straus · Rating 1 out of 5]

This could have been wonderful. Instead it sucked. Starts with Casey at the Bat. How dull.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read a couple. They seemed shallow.

[Charles M.]

Collection of short stories from some of the very best baseball writers.