Seventy-five days until pitchers and catchers … and here’s your daily splash of joy.
Why do you love baseball?
Brilliant Reader Julie: “Baseball welcomed my immigrant family long before we understood the nuances of American life. The game taught us that although it appears to be a team sport, every at-bat is a solitary moment — one person standing against the world.”
Brilliant Reader Ken: “The restraint that base runners show when their team is up by a bunch. (Don’t take a big lead, etc., etc.).”
Brilliant Reader John: “I absolutely love this concept because my wife and I have a running joke — I would start a conversation, ‘You know what’s great about baseball?’ probably once or twice a day, and each time have something completely different to say.”
If you would like to send in the reason why you love baseball, we’d love to hear it. Send it along to [email protected].
Before we get to our Book of the Month — and Talia is bringing us TWO books this month, just in time for Thanksgiving — we are finally able to offer something I’ve been wanting to bring out all year (and something many of you have asked about).
Here’s how it works: Go to our new gift page, pick the gift option, type in your recipient’s email (and a short note if you’d like), and voila: Your lucky gift-getter will receive an email asking them to claim it.
Once they click, they get a full year in The Clubhouse — the weekly stories, the baseball joy, the rabbit holes, the surprises.
And what do you get? Well, you will get (A) a complimentary month added to your subscription for spreading the joy; (B) a little bonus gift before the holidays, and (C) my undying thanks for supporting our mission here to make sports fun again.
And just for the holidays, we’re making an annual gift just $50 — $10 off the regular price.
Joe: From our book editor, Talia Chase, we’ve got two fantastic books this month in the JoeBlogs non-fiction Book of the Month. As it happens, I’ve read and loved both books SO much. I’m particularly happy to see Ken Dryden’s The Game in here because not too long ago, I did the 10 greatest sports books, and it broke my heart to leave The Game out.
OK, here’s Talia!
The Panel: The Power Broker (Beautifully written non-fiction)
The Members: Eric Larson, Michael Piafsky, Brian Clark
The Books: The Game: A Reflective and Thought Provoking Look at a Life in Hockey by Ken Dryden, and Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Supplemental Reading:
For reading while in a post-Thanksgiving food coma: Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
For more groundbreaking sportswriting: Ball Four by Jim Bouton
For getting philosophical about work (while taking some much-needed PTO): Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel
For making your brain hurt (instead of your stomach):
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
Underland by Robert Macfarlane
For a conversation topic with that one relative who’s really into war history: Dispatches by Michael Herr
For a little of this, a little of that - Part 3: Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan
SURPRISE! This month features a double header! Make sure you add that to your list of “Things I’m Grateful For” this Thanksgiving. I know we can all feel the hot breath of the holidays breathing down our necks, so why not distract ourselves from the impending Mariah Carey and Black Friday fist fights with not one, but TWO, excellent picks from a few of you wonderful club members. (Also, we kind of missed September, so this is me making it up to you).
I should note that the primary reason for this month’s double feature is that one particular title (hint: it’s The Game) was submitted by three panel members. Now, this is a sports book, and so I was hesitant to select it despite its clear prestige. But then I realized that Joe gave me free rein to do whatever I want with this club, and there was nothing stopping me from picking two books, one likely more familiar to Joe’s audience, and another to broaden our horizons. Thanks, Joe!
Read one, read both, read half of each, and live in suspense, whatever you’d like.
First, we’ll start with The Game, written by former Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden and published in 1983. Simply put, Dryden recounts the 1978-79 season—his last on the team. Somewhere in every article, review, blurb, Google search result, etc., for this book is some variation of the phrase “the best hockey book ever written.” I think it’s safe to say that this is a great, straightforward example of a game-changing book.
But we won’t leave it at that, because I know every one of you is dying to hear more.
[A SUPER SHOCKING NOTE: My personal relationship with sports literature spans about three books (two of which are Joe’s. The third was a previous BotM). Still, I believe that, regardless of genre or pre-existing expertise, any book’s merits can be understood by anyone, so let’s get into it.]
The Game is written in first person and in the present tense. I was, in all honesty, extremely skeptical. A nonfiction book about the past—a memoir, really—written as if it were happening live? Surely, I thought, this will be uncomfortable. How exciting to be completely wrong.
Dryden’s ability to place the reader in the exact time and place of every moment is absolutely delightful, enhanced by both the aforementioned choice in tense and point of view. I mean, the fact that he’s writing about himself definitely helps in the credibility department. Again, while I haven’t read much in this category, I have to believe this is all part of what makes The Game so extraordinary. Though I know next to nothing about hockey, I know very well what it’s like to be part of a team striving for perfection, and, believe it or not, Dryden’s descriptions of daily practices, post-game emotions, and the highs (and lows) of his career took me right back to my days as a ballet dancer. Dryden’s connection with his teammates, the sanctity of the locker room, his difficulty coming to terms with the impending end of his days as a pro hockey player…it all resonates on a shockingly relatable level.
In a similar manner to one of our earliest monthly titles - Our Team - this book is less about hockey itself and more about the people on the ice and the way they come together to do something magnificent. It may have changed the game for the genre, but it’s also changed the game for me.
Ok, hang up those imaginary skates and get ready to switch gears as we explore book No. 2:
Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a collection of Joan Didion’s essays originally written for her column in The Saturday Evening Post. I thought an essay collection would be perfect to pair alongside a more traditional linear narrative work for our first two-book month. You’re more than welcome (and strongly encouraged) to read it cover-to-cover, but you can also choose your own adventure by poking around and seeing what catches your eye.
Of course, the convenient structure isn’t what makes this a game-changer. When Slouching Towards Bethlehem was published in 1968 as Joan Didion’s first collection of essays, it was an immediate success; The New York Times Book Review wrote that Didion’s work offered “a rare display of some of the best prose written today in this country.” And, not to get too literal here, but the Amazon listing for this title calls it “a watershed moment in American writing.” Again, a pretty blatant definition of our theme.
[A SUPER INTRIGUING NOTE: Now, take this with a grain of salt, but when it comes to Slouching Towards Bethlehem, I believe this second choice may have been fate. I settled on Didion as our second book and read the first essay recently, which details the case of Lucille Miller (who may or may not have murdered her husband, Cork). As a true crime aficionado, I was both enthralled by this essay and surprised I’d never heard of this case. Well, mere days later, one of my favorite podcasts posted a new episode: The Death of Cork Miller: Accident or Murder. In the words of BBC’s Sherlock Holmes when asked about coincidence, “the universe is rarely so lazy.”]
Didion sets another example of an author with a marvelous voice. Her prose is melodic, peppered with dry humor and vibrant figurative language; she’s matter-of-fact, pushing the truth into the spotlight rather than shying from it, while simultaneously filling the page with rich descriptions that take into account the smallest detail, from the way the wind blew one summer day to each tiny, idiosyncratic behavior of the object of her writing. She’s conversational with the reader; at times, it feels as though you’re just perusing her journal, something written freely and openly with no intention of being one thing or another.
I hope everyone’s looking forward to this month of excess! Eat, drink, be merry - and pick up one of these titles while you’re at it. Don’t forget to pop into the Discord channel any time to share reading progress, thoughts, questions, or just to start a conversation with a fellow lover of the written word.
Kathleen’s Korner
I’m not doing a full section today, but did want to re-share our Brilliant Reader Hall of Fame ballot. You should be able to vote for up to 10 candidates, just like the BBWAA!
