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Selected Shorts: Baseball
Acclaimed actors from stage and screen perform tales from the baseball diamond in this newest, three-CD collection of stories from Selected Shorts. Both classic and contemporary works are featured, including a heartwarming piece on some fan habits during a players' strike, by W.P. Kinsella, and a sidesplitting account from T. Coraghessan Boyle of the longest game ever. Many of the readings were recorded during a historic broadcast of the show hosted by the late, beloved baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti. From the first pitch to the final out, these short stories are a lively listening experience.
3 pages, Audio CD
First published April 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 16, 2021
I’m used to reading books about baseball. As an audio-only release of their “Selected Shorts” series, NPR has chosen a few shorter pieces on baseball. I found these mostly hits, in terms of content. The readers mostly were reporter types, and perhaps didn’t have the experience of fiction or poetry reading. Not that they were bad, just not polished. And this was a live recording in front of an audience, so no redo’s. Entertaining was the live banter with Bart Giamatti and Roger Angel, they were enjoying themselves and you could tell. My favorite stories were the two longer bits – both of which I had already read. I have John Updike’s article on Ted Williams in its Library of America hardcover. You really get the feel of the times. The other excellent short story was W.P. Kinsella’s “The Thrill of the Grass”, which I read a few decades ago. I’m glad I ran across this again as an older baseball fan, as the story revolves around how older fans feel about the game. Highly recommended here or in Kinsella’s short story collection of the same name.
June 6, 2022
This collection of baseball short stories, poems and essays is a fun listen while in the car, at the beach or relaxing at home. My favorite one is the very first one when Giamatti is narrating a comparison to baseball and readin. Mel Allen and Roger Angell also contribute and likely the most famous selection is Updike’s piece about Ted Williams’ last game at Fenway Park. Short at only about 3 hours, it’s one that baseball fans will want to give a listen.
September 7, 2015
Bought this as a gift for my husband years ago, and on a ride back from Asheville we had no iPod so we listened to it straight through. Baseball isn't my all-time favorite subject but there are some really great stories and poetry here - the stand outs for me were "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" by John Updike which recounts Updike's attendance at Ted Williams's final game and "The Thrill of the Grass," a short story by W.P. Kinsella.
November 6, 2017
"The Red Sox tend to attract writers... the Red Sox are an affliction and you write to cure yourself. But even more, the Red Sox, more than any of the other 26, all of whom I love equally (and I want that clear), the Red Sox, more than any of them, annually reenact the fall of humankind. They, more than anybody or anything in our culture, every year recreate the ancient story of admiration, aspiration, and expulsion of coherence declining into exile."
"Understand that we were a crowd of rational people. We knew that a home run cannot be produced at will; the right pitch must be perfectly met and luck must ride with the ball. Three innings before, we had seen a brave effort fail. The air was soggy; the season was exhausted. Nevertheless, there will always lurk, around a corner in a pocket of our knowledge of the odds, an indefensible hope, and this was one of the times, which you now and then find in sports, when a density of expectation hangs in the air and plucks an event out of the future."
"[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops."
"Understand that we were a crowd of rational people. We knew that a home run cannot be produced at will; the right pitch must be perfectly met and luck must ride with the ball. Three innings before, we had seen a brave effort fail. The air was soggy; the season was exhausted. Nevertheless, there will always lurk, around a corner in a pocket of our knowledge of the odds, an indefensible hope, and this was one of the times, which you now and then find in sports, when a density of expectation hangs in the air and plucks an event out of the future."
"[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops."
September 26, 2022
It was a nice quick easy listen about baseball. Stories that have been written about baseball or by baseball writers or the commissioner. Funny stories with Hector Quesadilla or a great piece to end the book on tape. Sit back enjoy and reminisce on baseball of the past.
January 1, 2022
Disappointing
January 15, 2024
Giamatti and Angell were great writers. Several other bits were a bit dated/off-color for my taste.
December 12, 2011
"The Hector Quesedilla Story" was excellent. And, I can never really turn down "The Green Fields of the Mind", but I didn't really care for anything else. A lot of it was recorded as an NPR lecture and after about five minutes, I was annoyed with having to sit through all the audience applause during the rambling introductions.
March 23, 2011
like all anthologies, some of the stories worked for me and some did not. The poetry was wonderful and one or two of the stories certainly grabbed me. Now I just want baseball season to get underway!
April 25, 2014
Worth it just for Kinsella's "The Thrill of the Grass" alone, but there are a ton of gems in this collection.
March 31, 2017
This has an absolutely perfect story of a player who set the record for most foul balls, but my favorite short story was that of the worst trade in the history of baseball. This was a great way to kick off a new baseball season.
April 7, 2017
Oh man I liked this one! I used to love listening to those old time radio stories. Brought me back to my childhood lol (I'm not old, I just like old things) if you like old time time radio and love baseball you should get a kick out of this. I'm definitely looking for similar books.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews