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  • Laura Axelrod is a writer and book reviewer. Her plays have been performed in California, New York and Europe.

    Her book reviews appear regularly in the Birmingham News and on the Newhouse News Service wire.

    Read more about Laura Axelrod.

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« 'A Persistent Peace' & 'Swimming with Scapulars' top this week's notable books | Main | Amazon reclassifies gay & lesbian books »

April 13, 2009

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Dana Brand

Thank you for your mention. I have to agree with many of your readers about baseball books. Most of them are cynically assembled as Father's Day or holiday presents, symbols of filial love, not intended to be read. Very few give any sense of the poetry of baseball or the joys of fandom. I wanted my books about baseball to be different. There's a real problem, though, with publishers who refuse to believe that sports fans read. This is ridiculous, as most of the highly literate people I know are sports fans of some kind (usually baseball fans). I'm hoping this will change.

Theresa Muir

Laura, I wish I had seen your question about baseball earlier. It is something I think about quite a lot-- since baseball feels like part of my bloodstream and nervous system, I often have to ask myself "why." Dana Brand is certainly the one of the best people to address it.

I am kind of lucky, since my dad is NOT the biggest baseball fan in my family, so I have no filial obligation to wade through the cynical Father's Day choices. I can just try to skim the cream. Dana's writings are among the cream of recent days. He can tell you about the aesthetics and logic of the game, and the feeling of community that is ineluctably wrapped up with it. If you grow up with baseball, yo9u grow up with it like your neighborhood, religion, ethnicity, and your team is something to embrace or leave behind. If you didn't, for many, it is a delightful thing to discover in your mid-twenties or later-- an ex-boyfriend from Australia left me with a taste for Australian wines, and I left him a thoroughly knowledgeable baseball fan. We are both better people for it.


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