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Slide!: The Baseball Tragicomedy That Defined Me, My Family, and the City of Philadelphia— And How It All Could Have Been Avoided Had Someone Just Listened to My Lesbian Great Aunt
Slide! is the laugh-out-loud true story of the greatest collapse in baseball history, told from the perspective of a boy who lived it. The Philadelphia Phillies’ bid for the pennant in 1964 was an almost flawless run. With twelve games to play, the team’s lead seemed insurmountable. For 11-year-old Carl Wolfson, it was the happiest summer of his young life. Then the unthinkable happened. With each late-season loss, Phillies fans were thrown into despair, and Carl’s crumbling dream of a World Series forced him to take refuge in comedy. Luckily, it was all around him. His bickering parents (who put up Chinese symbols for “peace” and “happiness” and argued for years about which was which), his grandmother (who was so stubbornly Republican that she refused to carry a Roosevelt dime), and his mouthy great aunt (whose protest letters to the Phillies front office became local legend) created plenty of opportunity for distraction. This coming-of-age tale unfolds with the backdrop of President Kennedy’s assassination, the stormy Goldwater-Johnson campaign, the civil rights struggles of the early 1960s, and the (hilariously hyperbolic) height of Communist paranoia, creating a nuanced picture of what life was like during that tumultuous time of national and international change. A universal story of hope and heart and a finely crafted homage to childhood, family, and our national pastime, Slide! is essential reading for Phillies fanatics and fans of any team.
234 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 18, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 1, 2023
I read this book because of the title. It suggested that the book was about baseball, specifically the Phillies, and that the author had a sense of humor. It was correct on all counts. Plus the author is able to retain my interest in a story for which I already know the ending.
Wolfson relates the story of his childhood against the backdrop of his passion for baseball and specifically the joys and ultimate heartbreak of the Phillies in 1964. In that season the perennial second division Phillies win 92 games and lead the National League all summer before losing the pennant to St. Louis on the last day of the season. The author, who apparently grew up to be a comedian, provides a humorous look at himself and his family as the season progresses and reaches its disappointing climax. There are also poignant descriptions of the 11-year-old author trying (sometimes successfully) to break up quarrels between his parents by doing comic impressions of Lyndon Johnson.
His best line may have come on the last day of the season when the family learns that the Cardinals have won and the Phillies will not be going to the World Series. His staunchly Republican mother, attempting to salvage something positive from the autumn of 1964, expresses her certainty that at least Goldwater will win. After she leaves the room, Wolfson turns to his father and says, "Mom's in for a tough year".
Wolfson relates the story of his childhood against the backdrop of his passion for baseball and specifically the joys and ultimate heartbreak of the Phillies in 1964. In that season the perennial second division Phillies win 92 games and lead the National League all summer before losing the pennant to St. Louis on the last day of the season. The author, who apparently grew up to be a comedian, provides a humorous look at himself and his family as the season progresses and reaches its disappointing climax. There are also poignant descriptions of the 11-year-old author trying (sometimes successfully) to break up quarrels between his parents by doing comic impressions of Lyndon Johnson.
His best line may have come on the last day of the season when the family learns that the Cardinals have won and the Phillies will not be going to the World Series. His staunchly Republican mother, attempting to salvage something positive from the autumn of 1964, expresses her certainty that at least Goldwater will win. After she leaves the room, Wolfson turns to his father and says, "Mom's in for a tough year".
May 17, 2018
I grew up fifteen minutes from where Carl spent his historic 1964 so I "feel his pain". The curse of Chico Ruiz, stealing home with Frank Robinson at the plate, will always be with me. Enough about me. I loved the humble story of Carl and his extended family. The book is full of intelligent humor and wonderful reminisces from those early sixties. I enjoyed reading the names of long lost heroes like Johnny Callison, Jim Bunning, Chris Short, Dick Allen, Cookie Rojas, Bobby Wine, Rueben Amaro ,Alex Johnson, and Wes Covington. What I had forgotten was that Bobby Shantz, Johnny Klispstein, and even Ed Roebuck were also on that team. Wolfson brings to life those heady days when our long last nightmare seemed destined to be over- only to turn into an unforeseen nightmare. Cleverly and entertainingly Wolfson weaves his family and his youth into the pennant race to give the reader a context for just how significant the pennant race was to the entire family. The epilogue is the clincher and gave me chills. I'm glad the family all seemed to have done well. Great job Carl.
April 30, 2018
Loved it! I totally related to this book. It's about the amazing collapse of the '64 Phillies and family life in suburban South Jersey in the 60's. My life, or at least part of it. It brought back so many memories. My Dad taking us to the game at Connie Mack stadium. The bright lights and beautiful green of the field, in stark contrast with the gritty North Philly neighborhood. Family life. Siblings. Pets. Relatives. It's all there. You remember, don't you?
March 20, 2021
A great memoir. I’m one of those readers who has never followed baseball, but I loved this book. The collapse of the Philadelphia Phillies in their attempt to win the National League pennant in the fall of 1964 is only part of the draw here. It forms the clever structure through which the author tells the story of his family and the discovery of his heart’s desire at age eleven: comedy.
The family’s obsession with a Phillies win makes for hilarious reading as the author ticks off, in impressive detail, each loss after loss for the team that fall. Between the games, we see a portrait of the artist as a young man. Wolfson, who goes on to a successful career as a stand-up comic, knows he is already a gifted impressionist, entertaining the family with impersonations of such characters as Ed Sullivan, LBJ and even Mrs. Drysdale from The Beverly Hillbillies. Through the course of the book, he also begins to learn what makes a joke—something as simple as switching a word from a noun to a verb or getting the biggest laugh with a punch line that hits when you least expect it. It’s the author’s gradual understanding of the mechanics and the power of comedy that was the most enjoyable aspect of the book for me.
And comedy is indeed all around him in the pages of Slide!. I laughed out loud at the accounts of his parents’ arguments, especially the one over whether a school raffle prize was a stuffed giant panda or a giant stuffed panda. You’ll find a laugh on almost every page, whether it’s the author’s observations about Boy Scout camp, high school gym class, learning—or trying to learn—to play the oboe, or his bemused observations about his family’s quirks.
There are parallels with Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story; Wolfson’s mealtime nemeses at age eleven are lima beans and onions instead of Ralphie’s meat loaf and red cabbage. But there is often a sharper, more poignant edge to his observations, all while his love and respect for his family come through loud and clear. I don’t want to be a spoiler, but the final family scene in Wolfson’s epilogue gave me goosebumps and came, like a good punch line, as a total surprise. It proves the author knows how to deliver, whether creating a standup monologue or a sit-down read.
I have known Carl since college in the early 1970s (when he was still a Wolfsohn), and I’ve asked myself whether I would have read this book or enjoyed it as much were he not a friend. The answer is an enthusiastic yes. Like Christmas Story and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it successfully makes the specific idiosyncrasies of a particular family something universal and beautiful, and his appreciation of those idiosyncrasies something very moving indeed. So of course I would have read the book. And when the movie version is made, as it rightfully should be, I’ll be among the first to buy tickets.
The family’s obsession with a Phillies win makes for hilarious reading as the author ticks off, in impressive detail, each loss after loss for the team that fall. Between the games, we see a portrait of the artist as a young man. Wolfson, who goes on to a successful career as a stand-up comic, knows he is already a gifted impressionist, entertaining the family with impersonations of such characters as Ed Sullivan, LBJ and even Mrs. Drysdale from The Beverly Hillbillies. Through the course of the book, he also begins to learn what makes a joke—something as simple as switching a word from a noun to a verb or getting the biggest laugh with a punch line that hits when you least expect it. It’s the author’s gradual understanding of the mechanics and the power of comedy that was the most enjoyable aspect of the book for me.
And comedy is indeed all around him in the pages of Slide!. I laughed out loud at the accounts of his parents’ arguments, especially the one over whether a school raffle prize was a stuffed giant panda or a giant stuffed panda. You’ll find a laugh on almost every page, whether it’s the author’s observations about Boy Scout camp, high school gym class, learning—or trying to learn—to play the oboe, or his bemused observations about his family’s quirks.
There are parallels with Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story; Wolfson’s mealtime nemeses at age eleven are lima beans and onions instead of Ralphie’s meat loaf and red cabbage. But there is often a sharper, more poignant edge to his observations, all while his love and respect for his family come through loud and clear. I don’t want to be a spoiler, but the final family scene in Wolfson’s epilogue gave me goosebumps and came, like a good punch line, as a total surprise. It proves the author knows how to deliver, whether creating a standup monologue or a sit-down read.
I have known Carl since college in the early 1970s (when he was still a Wolfsohn), and I’ve asked myself whether I would have read this book or enjoyed it as much were he not a friend. The answer is an enthusiastic yes. Like Christmas Story and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it successfully makes the specific idiosyncrasies of a particular family something universal and beautiful, and his appreciation of those idiosyncrasies something very moving indeed. So of course I would have read the book. And when the movie version is made, as it rightfully should be, I’ll be among the first to buy tickets.
April 19, 2018
This was really more a memoir of a childhood in the 1960s than a baseball book, although baseball and the downfall of the Phillies is certainly part of it. I would have preferred more baseball and less about the family dynamics of the author.
December 25, 2017
This is a baseball memoir of a kid in a year where his team should of make it but didn't. Its amusing in parts but didn't really do it for me. Still its a valiant attempt that I could relate to.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews