Screen Door Slam

by Rich Cohen

What’s the best way to spend a summer evening?

For many of us, it’s playing softball with friends, under the lights, a cooler of beer in the dugout. In the late 1980s, author Rich Cohen, then a senior in high school, assembled a team of ne’er-do-wells - gear heads, burnouts, goof balls, and the possibly gifted - to compete in what Cohen considered the best 12-Inch softball league in the Lower 48. Think Field of Dreams, but, instead of a cornfield in Iowa, these games were played behind a grade school in Glencoe, Illinois, on Chicago’s North Shore.

Cohen named the team The North Shore Screen Doors, hence the fight song, “Screen Door Slam”, inspired by 1985’s "Super Bowl Shuffle". (“We ain’t out there just to get a tan / we’re out there doing the Screen Door Slam.”) The Screen Doors played just two seasons. The first was glory, but the second, by which time the kids had begun to grow apart, was an error-filled mess, which is why, in late July, Cohen called on his father, famed negotiator Herb Cohen (“Herbie”) to fix the team. A titanic struggle followed, as Herbie, using all his grown-up shrewdness, negotiating prowess, and sports knowledge, wrested control and remade the team in time for a pennant run. Along the way, several timeless questions come up: What’s more important, fun or winning? Family or friends? Speed or power?

This is a story of perfect seasons, friends, games that only seem important, and how a long summer night ends in the cool dawn of adulthood. In it, Cohen has attempted to create a new genre of sports journalism (“Cosmic Little League”) and also add to his greater project of doing for Chicago’s North Shore what Faulkner did for Yoknapatawpha County and Springsteen did for Asbury Park. It’s got softball, fields where the dirt blows, heroes and villains, trickery and negotiation, fathers and sons, and characters, each of whom could anchor his own John Hughes movie. This is The Bad News Bears had those punks reconvened for one more run at the title.

Genres: Audiobook, Memoir

Audible Audio

First published October 23, 2020

About the author

RICH COHEN is the author of Sweet and Low (FSG, 2006), Tough Jews, The Avengers, The Record Men, and the memoir Lake Effect. His work has appeared in many major publications, and he is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. He lives with his family in Connecticut.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Coh...

Reviews

[Kevin McInerney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pretty simple story, but it brought back memories of growing up in the Chicago area. I'm about 13 years older than the author, but a lot of the characters are the same. Friends of mine assembled a 16" softball team during our senior year in high school - about the same age as Cohen and his friends. The other teams were mostly in their 40s - bigger and stronger. Our team was more athletic but we were overpowered by most teams. Other teams would tell us that if we stayed together, we went be a good team in the future. Alas, as players got married and had kids, their ability to play lessened. And they struggled to find enough players and the team disbanded. They were able to find a sponsor - a local bar. Most of the players were 18-20 (the drinking age then for beer and wine was 19).

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun.

[Thompson McDaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was funny. Not surprising, Rich is a funny guy. But it was also surprisingly suspenseful. Loved the throw back element to the neighborhood softball leagues that seemed ubiquitous in my hometown in Jersey in the 70s (i was to young to be in one, and suck a baseball, so never would have participated, but there always seemed a game on during the summer with lots of beer, cigarettes, swearing and laughing, not to mention a fanbase that favored daisy dukes and low-cut halter tops). Can’t recall but don’t believe the title has any direct reference to Thunder road, another reason I was keen to listen.

[Chris Schaffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick, good.