Bottom Of The 33rd: Hope, Redemption, And Baseball's Longest Game (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Although the information in this book wasn't new to me (I knew quite a bit about this game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Redwings), I liked the way the author told the true story of the longest game in professional baseball. The book reads smoothly and isn't padded, the details are revealing, and the entire story is quite gripping, especially to baseball fans. I definitely recommend this book. Baseball. Yes, BOTTOM OF THE 33RD: HOPE, REDEMPTION, AND BASEBALL'S LONGEST GAME by Dan Barry contains quite a lot about baseball. But it's a sports book that stretches the genre. It's a book about more than baseball. The author reveals emotional before-and-after stories from the vantage point of one game begun on April 18, 1981 between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings.Barry aims to acquaint us not only with the game and the baseball players, but also with the wives, bat boys, referees, concession stand workers, managers, fans, scorekeepers, radio announcers, reporters, the stadium and the city of Pawtucket itself. (Yes, it'll be a considerable challenge to keep all the names and details straight!)Given that the book was published in 2011 allowing several decades to have passed since the 1981 moment to moment drama, Barry is able to report backstories for his subjects, including their hopes and dreams, right along with a "what happened later" history. This before/after time dimension increases the insight potential for readers.I'll confess that I'm not much of a sports team follower myself, so that's not required for giving this book a shot.Yes, I have absorbed bits and pieces about baseball, and I've even heard of Wade Boggs and Cal Ripkin, Jr. whom we get to meet as young players. Don't worry, if you've never heard of them, Barry will make sure you know that they will eventually achieve baseball fame quite apart from their role in this one historic minor league game.I'll end here and leave the decision up to you. If you're still on the fence, perhaps getting a flavor of Barry's prose will help. Here's a sample from page 14. "...as though this modest piece of Pawtucket broke free of times's restraints with the first pitch at eight o'clock last night to become a community apart, afloat, unrelated now to anything beyond the ballpark's lights. Someone not here tonight could pose quite legitimate questions to the players and fans, questions that would naturally start with why. Why did you keep playing? Why did you stay? At two o'clock in the morning, and then at three o'clock, why didn't you just ---leave? The official answer, that some umpire refused to call it a night, would be so lacking in the weight of common sense that it might twirl off like a deflating balloon before the sentence could be finished. But the truer answer might be as unsatisfying to the outsider as it is surprising to these inhabitants of this in-between place, where time's boundaries have blurred. Why did you keep playing? Why did you stay? Because we are bound by duty. Because we aspire to greater things. Because we are loyal. Because, in our own secular way, we are celebrating communion, and resurrection, and possibility."
What do You think about Bottom Of The 33rd: Hope, Redemption, And Baseball's Longest Game (2011)?
Some stories fascinating, but hard to care about each and every minor league player profiled.
—jhkbghf
Very well-written prose.Makes you want to watch baseball game.
—Isetheboy
