Baseball Love

by George Bowering

Having written books in practically every genre, George Bowering is often introduced as someone who adores baseball, yet ironically he did not begin this book about the game until he was appointed Canada’s first Poet Laureate for 2002–04. This picaresque memoir of a road trip with his fiancée through the storied ballparks of a poet’s youthful dreams is built on the bargain of fiction—that the narration of someone else’s life requires the listener or reader to fill in the blanks of what we know is out there, somewhere in the world, but which takes place at such a great distance of time and space from us that we can only imagine it to be real.Beginning with the exquisite charm of listening in on Bowering as a youthful sports reporter in his home town of Oliver in 1948, “the greatest year in human history,” moving through the brash hubris of his career as a star player–reporter in the Kosmic League of the 1970s, to staring down the bittersweet foul line of the Twilight League of the twenty–first century, Baseball Love is a book about Bowering’‘s life in love and the game, played with a consummate craft and skill into the paradise of what we can only ever imagine to be real, and leavened at all times by the conscious and playfully ironic chatter of the infield.Its provenance uncertain, the diamond in the ballpark—where no cars are allowed to drive, where time stands still unless there’s an out and where one adheres to the rules governing behaviour in the yard—is the quintessential North American vision of a walled garden in the midst of the dark satanic mills of blind industrial progress and the chaos of the everyday in the exploited wilderness that surrounds it.

Genres: Sports, Baseball

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2006

About the author

George Bowering was born and brought up in the Okanagan Valley, amid sand dunes and sagebrush, but he has lived in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta — great sources of hockey stars. Along the way he has stopped to write several books on baseball. He has also picked up Governor General’s Awards for his poetry and fiction, and otherwise been rewarded with prizes for his books, except in his home province of British Columbia. His earlier ECW book, His Life, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for 2000. He lives in Vancouver.

Reviews

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grabbed this from a used book sale, having never heard of George Bowering. I guess I am just too young to recognize the name but he is one of Canada's most prolific authors, former Poet Laureate of Canada, Governor General winner, the list goes on. Who knew? I really had no idea what to expect but I thought a book about a baseball road trip sounded fun.

His style is quite interesting, a little rambly, a little inside-jokey, the style of someone who has experience writing in multiple styles for multiple decades. I haven't read anything quite like it. I was a bit confused at the beginning - I suppose memoirs of already famous people are written for fans, not people with no clue who you are, but I caught on eventually.

Having been tentatively planning to do a baseball trip this summer and of course that not happening, it was nice to at least vicariously live one out through Mr. Bowering's writing. As I saw described somewhere, this is truly a Canadian baseball book - there may not be anything else like it out there.

I am not sure this book would be for everyone, but if you are a baseball fan, enjoy travelogues, and writing that sounds like a conversation with your eccentric elderly uncle, you may enjoy this. I'm really glad to have read it! It was a great pick for a nightstand book to read before bed. Looking forward to the day we can go on baseball road trips again.

[Jack Garton · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Bowering's baseball writing is of a peculiar Canadian variety. This is something one doesn't normally find in books dealing with America's National Pastime, and I like it because it I am the type of baseball fan who revels in the small dramas and miracles of the sandlot, the minor leagues, the "outsider" world of ball. There's plenty of this in Bowering's book, and his encyclopedic recitations of stats and trivia are tempered by the funny and smart writing of a true all-star of Canlit. From the Okanagan to Mexico, he covers lots of ground and quite possibly defines for the first time a truly Canadian perspective on baseball.