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From: gasarch@umcp-cs.UUCP (  William Gasarch)
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Unmentioned baseball book
Message-ID: <2626@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 22-Dec-85 20:22:12 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.2626
Posted: Sun Dec 22 20:22:12 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Dec-85 03:19:08 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 16

A rather unusual (though good) baseball book that nobody has mentioned
is Philip Roths ``The Great American Novel'' which traces the misfortunes
of an awful team in a fictious league during WW II.  Its essentially
satire and well written

On the other hand, one problem with fiction about baseball is that the real game
is interesting enough, so making things fictional can only detract from
the story.  For example, before Bill Veck (misspelled I'm sure)
sent a midget up to bat no fiction book could have possibly used that
gimmick as nobody would hve believed it.

But, Roths book is well written, and satirical, and has a point
(though I'm not sure what it is), hence I recommend it.

						gasarch@maryland