By far the most literate of baseball's commissioners, the late Bart
Giamatti, former president of Yale, was the game's most unashamedly
vocal fan both before and during his tenure as chief executive. The
child of immigrants, he embraced baseball's very Americanness, and
ascribed to its simple goal--coming home--a far-reaching, overall
metaphor. His ardor was unguarded and unabashed, his approach
sentimental and as expansive as a pair of foul lines diverging in the
distance. Giamatti's oversized passion infuses everything in this
slim volume, from his wistful elegy to Tom Seaver and his admonition
to fans to clean up their act, to his pained public statement banning
Pete Rose from the game for life. Best of all, his seductively
lyrical essay "The Green Fields of the Mind" leads off the lineup.
The latter alone--it begins by poignantly observing of baseball, "It
breaks your heart. It's designed to break your heart"--is worth the
price of admission.
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