Full disclosure: I am a person who deeply loves the game of baseball, as well as all the literature, history and stories surrounding the game.I enjoyed the story, and I would recommend people reading the book before watching the movie. I saw the movie first because I did not realize there was a book it was based off. The movie followed a large amount of the book, but made changes that I feel ultimately take away from the story.A pitcher, who will eventually be heading for the Hall Of Fame, but for this season is pitching for a last place team, finds out the owners feel he is too old and have planned to trade him after the season is over. In addition to this, a women he cares for, though is unsure if he loves, tells him she is never seeing him again, and is planning on marrying another man.Then he has to pitch in a game that for his team is meaningless, but for the opponents will help determine whether they make the playoffs. While preparing, and then during the game, he reviews how his life has "played out" through a series of flashbacks.It is a fun story, especially for baseball fans, and a very easy read. A reader should be able to finish the book in the time it takes a baseball game to be played. It probably should be rated at 3 1/2 stars, but as I said earlier, my being a baseball nut gives me a little bit of a bias, and so I gave it 4 stars.
The novelist who wrote the brilliant historical novel Killer Angels was ill-served by his son in publishing this posthumous novel about baseball, made, I realized too late, into a conventional but somewhat more nuanced and credible but still saccharine movie with Kevin Costner. Shaara’s body of work is too slender to survive the insertion of such a gimpy effort. Nor does the encouraged comparison to Hemingway help. It is not totally unwarranted but not as intended. Hemingway’s oeuvre includes three masterly short story collections, two very good novels, one excellent novel, and some very good nonfiction. The late in life near miss, The Old Man in the Sea, has its moments and is both daunted by comparisons to his best and helped by flashes of brilliance. And the posthumous memoir A Moveable Feast is just great. For the Love of the Game has the pigeon-toed prose walk of very weak Hemingway (think Across the River into the Trees): short sentences, clipped dialogue, awkwardly empty understatements, and, like The Old Man and the Sea, internal monologues that fail way too often to rise above self-parody. So yeah think Hemingway at his most sentimental and least successful or, more accurately, think about the annual bad Hemingway imitation contest held in Key West: Not good enough. No. Good enough for that. Can try. Must win. Didn’t.
What do You think about For Love Of The Game (1999)?
This is a lovely story. Written in a Hemingway-esque style, it covers the last two days in the baseball career of a future Hall of Fame pitcher. The characters are well drawn and believable. The inner ramblings of pitcher Billy Chapel are particularly well done. The book takes us into the heart of baseball where time is an illusion and the past and the future somehow are joined.It's basically a one day read and yet, I suspect, it will stay in my mind for a long time. The love story is done in a totally understated manner which the plot, such as it is, requires.The only book which comes even close to this story is Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris. Like Harris' novel, even though the story is ostensibly about baseball, it is also about friendship, commitment, growing up and honoring yourself by doing the best you can no matter the circumstances. I saw the movie based on the book years ago. It starred Kevin Costner and was an admirable attempt to capture the spirit of the book but it didn't quite make it. I would suggest strongly that you read the book before you rent or buy the movie.
—Ed
This is a beautifully written baseball story. A declining great major league pitcher is approaching what is likely the final game of his career, thanks to a trade rumor he has just been told about. That same morning, his girlfriend of four years has decided to end their relationship. And so the book proceeds with the narrative of this last game, pitch by pitch (with a few fast forwards). While Billy, the pitcher, rests as his team bats, he reflects on his relationship with his girlfriend, remembers his upbringing and parents, and his introduction to the game he loves. Michael Shaara's prose is smooth and so much of this is a metaphor for life. A short, simple, very satisfying read.
—David
When you read a book after seeing the movie you hope for some clarity or depth of meaning that may have gotten lost in movie production but there is none here. The movie has better character development and improved the characters. The book isn't without some merit because I like to read the descriptors and form my own impression of what is going on. I especially enjoyed "the game" because you get so much more out of reading what is going through his mind rather than trying to pick it up from the actor who is portraying it. The ending on both could use some work. I slightly prefer the book because again we can read the thoughts and it carries more meaning that way, but it would have been nice to have them actually see each other and have a warm hug at the end. The movie goes the other way and has them making out in public in what should be a very private moment.
—Mom
