W. P. Kinsella’s baseball novels belong in the Hall of Fame. But this collection of well-known baseball quotes and stories, of which Kinsella was the editor, generates about as much excitement as a late-season game between two also-rans. There are some gems of short reporting, but most of the material in Diamonds Forever would seem better suited to the disposable pages of a desktop calendar.
Of the winning entries, one of the best belongs to Toronto writer Alison Gordon. In fewer than 100 words she illustrates baseball’s enduring appeal among fathers and sons with a description of a middle-aged man guiding a frail senior citizen into Boston’s Fenway Park, and then casts back 40 years to when that same old man, then strong and confident, led a confused and excited five-year-old down the same path.
Many long-time baseball fans hold the view, quite justifiably, that the game has suffered under the leadership of current commissioner Bud Selig. That becomes especially apparent when one reads the quotations – two of the most affecting in the book – from former big-league leaders Bowie Kuhn and Bartlett Giamatti. The latter, a one-time college president, says baseball breaks the heart: “As the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face fall alone.” For his part, Kuhn states that a man from 1910 would be able to walk into a ballpark today and understand the game perfectly, the game’s traditions have changed so little.
That may not hold true for much longer. As the season gets longer and interleague play confuses old rivalries, baseball is straying distressingly far from its roots. In the near future, experiments with numerous other “innovations” can be expected to further erode the game’s longstanding and much-loved traditions.
True fans may draw hope from these pages that the game’s virtues will once again shine brightly – that they will experience, as Yogi Berra once said, “
Diamonds Forever: Reflections from the Field, the Dugout and the Bleachers
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