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#FridayReads, August 16–Mike Sowell’s “The Pitch That Killed” & Jayne Anne Phillips’ “Quiet Dell”

Sowell-front-cover-69x100#FridayReads, August 16–Mike Sowell’s The Pitch That Killed: The Story of Carl Mays, Ray Chapman, and the Pennant Race of 1920 is one of the best baseball books I’ve ever read, or been involved with publishing. It chronicles the only fatality ever caused by injury to a player during a pro baseball game. Ray Chapman was a terrific Cleveland Indians shortstop who died after being struck in the head with a pitch thrown by NY Yankee Carl Mays. The tragedy occurred in the same season that the Tribe won their first World Series, somehow overcoming the mid-season loss of one of their most valuable players. I’m glad that Cleveland Plain Dealer sports writer Bill Livingston, @LivyPDchose to write about it recently, reminding me of the time I worked at Macmillan Publishing when an editorial colleague and friend, Rick Wolff, brought out the book. Livingston reports that a film based on the book, “Deadball,” is in the works.

Sowell-back-cover-67x100 Today is the 93rd anniversary of the day of the day of the beaning. Chapman never regained consciousness, lingering in a coma and dying two days later. I have read the book several times and feel privileged to make it part of my #FridayReads today.

Quiet Dell coverI am also happy to say that I am continuing to read and savor Jayne Anne Phillips’ Quiet Dell, a mesmerizing novel drawn from the annals of a notorious true crime. It’s set in 1931, when a West Virginia killer who operated under several aliases lured a Chicago-area widow and her three children in to his fatal embrace. He tried to dispose of his victims but failed at that; his crimes were discovered and he was arrested by authorities in the hamlet of Quiet Dell, WV, near the city of Clarksburg. Into this true-life set-up, Jayne Anne Phillips has found it necessary to insert only four fictional characters, alongside the more numerous figures filling the narrative from the historical record. Fictional or once among the living, she renders the actions and motivations of her characters with vivid and imaginative power. One of her fictional characters is female journalist, Emily Thornhill, who becomes the readers’ eyes and ears on the case, which she’s covering for the Chicago Tribune. Emily has had thrust upon her the adoption of the dead family’s orphaned dog–a real-life bull terrier with the Victorian-tinged name of Duty–earlier the target of a vicious kick by the malefactor, now playing a valuable canine role in the investigation with his compelling identification of the killer. Phillips grew up in West Virginia and on her website she includes an Author’s Note that chronicles her personal connections to the story. I urge you to watch for the book which will be published October 15, and which has already received a starred review from Kirkus: “Phillips’ prose is as haunting as the questions she raises about the natures of sin, evil and grace.” I am deliberately not rushing through Quiet Dell and will write more on the book when I’ve finished reading it.Quiet Dell back

Mike Sowell’s fine book is still in print today, in a trade paperback edition from Ivan R. Dee, independent publisher in Chicago. It can be purchased from Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon via this link: The Pitch That Killed. You may also pre-order Quiet Dell from Powell’s. They are the bookselling partner for this site, returning a percentage of your purchase price to aid me in its upkeep.

A Special Treat–Weekday Baseball at Yankee Stadium

IMG_0194 Had a great time yesterday watching the Yankees vs. the Indians play ball on a bright and gorgeous day at Yankee Stadium. Longtime friend and publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin got tickets and had invited me to join with him two other friends of his–Dick and Mike–with whom he’s in a rotisserie baseball league. The game ended up as a 6-4 win for the Yanks. As a Tribe fan, I would have been happier to see my old hometown team prevail but the Bombers were much the better team, with Yankee starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia, the former Indian, throwing a complete game.

As Mike put it at one juncture, “What’s the point of having your own business if you can’t take time off to go to a day game?” I agreed wholeheartedly, and really enjoyed the wide-ranging conversation the four of us carried on for all nine innings, ranging over photography, New York City, New Hampshire, the economy, the early days of the Internet, publishing, and of course, baseball. My camera happened to have enough battery power for one photo and I’m glad I got this good shot and could include it here. What a great way to spend a late spring afternoon!

Cleveland’s Pro Baseball Team, Mildly Renascent

As readers of this blog will know, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and under the tutelage of my sports-loving dad, I became a fan, too. I remain a fan and a follower of all the Cleveland professional sports team, the NBA Cavaliers (By lottery this week they won the first pick in the upcoming collegiate draft, a pleasant prospect.); the NFL Browns (I attended the last Cleveland pro sports championship, when the Browns won the NFL title in 1964, two years before the minting of the Super Bowl.); and the baseball Indians (In case you wonder, I am tired of the nickname, embarrassed by it, and wish the franchise would dump it; I tend to just call them the Tribe or CLEVE. At least this year the front office, though still resisting calls to change names, they do seem to have sidelined the brazenly racial “Chief Wahoo” mascot logo.). The history of failure–or least, shortfalls of the ultimate goal–by my teams, hasn’t deterred my fanship, illustrated by a piece I wrote last year, How to Enjoy Sports Even When Your Teams Have a History of Failure.

The Tribe haven’t won a World Series since ’48. This season, so far, the team has been playing surprisingly well, and at the moment they lead their division by a half-game. In their past 25 games they must be playing at about a 17-win and an 8-loss clip. They could still collapse after July 4th, but things look bright right now.

The above is prelude to the fact that last night the Tribe opened a 4-game series in Boston vs. the Red Sox at Fenway Park. It was the first game back in Boston for Terry Francona, now the CLEVE manager, after he held the job in Boston for 8 years, until 2011. As this Cleveland Plain Dealer story reminds, he won two World Series championships during that tenure, and then was quite unceremoniously dumped by the BOSOX brain trust. I’m really glad Cleveland has him in the dugout now. I’m sure his calm leadership is one of the reasons the Tribe is playing so well this season. Who knows, maybe the team can keep it up.

Last night’s game ended up as a route, for my side. The Tribe scored early and often. Their march through the innings went like this: 1-0; 4-0; 4-3; 5-3; 6-3; 12-3, the final score. The Tribe currently leads the American League in homers, with 60, yet oddly last night, though hitting double digits in run production–though they had a total of 16 base hits, with 4 doubles and a triple–they did not hit a homer. Still, it’s alright, for as Mark Reynolds the Tribe’s leading basher with 12 HRs puts it in beat writer Paul Hoynes’ game story, “‘Sometimes, homers are rally killers,’ said [the DH/3rd baseman] with a laugh.”

Remembering the Pitch That Killed a Major League Ballplayer

Sowell front coverSowell back coverThe Pitch That Killed: The Story of Carl Mays, Ray Chapman, and the Pennant Race of 1920 is one of the best baseball books I’ve ever read, or been involved with publishing. It chronicles the only fatality ever caused by injury during a baseball game. Ray Chapman was a great Cleveland Indians shortstop who died after struck in the head by a pitch thrown by NY Yankee Carl Mays. The tragedy occurred in the same season that the Tribe won their first World Series, somehow overcoming the loss of one of their best players. I’m glad that Cleveland Plain Dealer sports writer Bill Livingston, @LivyPD, chose to write about it today, the Sunday before Opening Day. Livingston reports that a film based on the book, “Deadball,” may be in the works.The Pitch That Killed is still in print today, in an edition from Ivan R. Dee, independent publisher in Chicago.

Macmillan, where I worked in the late 1980s, was a hotbed of excellent baseball publishing, anchored by The Baseball Encyclopedia. Titles I was responsible for included Two Spectacular Seasons: 1930–The Year the Hitters Ran Wil and 1968: The Year the Pitchers Took Revenge by William B. Mead and the Twentieth Anniversary edition of Jim Bouton’s classic Ball Four, an edition that’s still widely available today, including from Powell’s Books, the affiliate bookseller for this site. Colleague and friend Rick Wolff, who edited The Pitch That Killed and The Baseball Encyclopedia also worked on You Gotta Have Wa: When Two Cultures Collide on the Baseball DiamondRobert Whiting’s enlightening examination of baseball in Japan. As baseball season begins, it’s fun to celebrate some great baseball books.

Seasonal thoughts

I was struck how the snowstorm arrived less than 12 hrs after the World Series ended. I imagine this occurred to someone beside me today. I’m reminded also that earlier this fall, the weather turned crisp as soon as Labor Day had passed.  I don’t believe in nature as mechanism, nor for the most part […]