Book Review: Twilight of the Long-Ball Gods

Book Review: Twilight of the Long-Ball Gods - Dispatches from the Disappearing Heart of Baseball.
By John Schulian
University of Nebraska Press.
p. 185

I’m embarrassed that I had never noticed John Schulian’s writings before. He’s the kind of writer who makes you want to emulate his style and class, but more particularly his content. John’s a throwback to the days when baseball had a lot more romance than it does now, when baseball was more about fun than about business. Some might call that nostalgia, but I think that many of us would agree with him about how the game held a certain innocent nature that the modern day game appears to lack.

Schulian recounts the type of stories that every baseball fan can relate to even if they never lived in the days when the minors had hundreds of teams and baseball didn’t have it’s current minor league structure (A to AAA classifications). This work is more than a simple retelling of what went on between the lines, it’s a retelling of the history of the game, of the great and sometimes forgotten ballplayers, the local heroes, the zany fans and those who shaped the formation of the game. TWILIGHT is a collection of snapshots written in prose about why America loved the game that has evolved into what it is today.

TWILIGHT collects some of Schilian’s best pieces and puts them forward in a fashion that is far more literate an intellectual than the typical stuff you see in most books. TWILIGHT is not too highbrow for the common fan, and while it doesn’t contain many discussion about numbers those who might feel slighted are missing the point (Sabermatricians who want to look purely at the numbers to understand the history of the game may be less than pleased with this entry). The aim of this work is to tell the story of the history of the men who were involved in the game and not to give a recounting of the best players based upon statistical analysis. For those of us interested in this type of non-statistical bent, the book will flow in it’s artistry.

The characters inside this book are not the usual cast. Sure you’ll find mention of Barry Bonds and Joe Dimaggio, and less familiar but recognizable names such as Josh Gibson, Frank Howard and Tim McCarver, but you’ll find a lot of almost unknown ballplayers as well. Some of these figures include: Russ Mormon (who’s career paralleled real life “Crash” Davis of the Durham Bulls), Jigger Statz, Steve Bilko, Wild Bill Hagy and Darryl Cias. Their stories are the kind that few journalists involved with sports today still write about. The reason for this? Well, perhaps there are few journalists of the ilk of John Schulian left who can still see baseball not just as hard nosed reporter, but through the eyes of the 12 year old who rode his bike to the local game and stood in awe when he met his hero.

In reading this book I found myself transported to days gone by to a day before the game of baseball that I know actually existed. This game of yesteryear looked not just at players and leagues, but also at the legends that are the foundation of the game today. That game wasn’t concerned with steroids, dollar figures and endorsements, these men cared about the game they were a part of and what it represented. From the innovative Bill Veeck (who’s one of the 10 baseball men I’d most have liked to meet) to DiMaggio’s feelings for Marilyn Monroe, to the fans of the game hoping beyond hope to catch a foul ball or shake the hand of their hero, the game was purely what it was, baseball. Schulian paints a beautiful picture of the game we used to know and yearn to find again.

TWILIGHT is a nostalgic and romantic look at the game of baseball during a time that very much needs. Give this one a solid 3 balls out of a possible four and make sure you crack it open to read when the modern game, and it’s crisis’, begin to wear you down.