Customer Reviews

Ballpark Blues: A Novel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Do yourself a favor and don't bother with this book. It starts out as the dream novel every baseball fan has been wishing for since "Shoeless Joe." But, it quickly disintegrates into a story of friendship, true love, self-indulgence, and over-the-top cliche baseball drama.
Another reviewer spoke of misspelled street names - even worse Mark McGwire's name is spelled incorrectly twice (McGuire - what MS Word suggests as the correct spelling). How can anyone respect a baseball book that spells a Hall of Famer's name wrong twice - what's next Babe Rooth?

As another reviewer did, I grabbed this book from the shelf when I saw the photo of Fenway Park on the cover. I enjoyed it tremendously - the character Russ' words on the pain of being a Red Sox fan were right on the mark. And the theme of what's wrong with modern day sports is interesting and thoughtful without it bogging down the plot (too much).
The first half is stronger than the second, but I did stay up late into the night to find out what happened to the characters. I hope they fix the spelling of Lansdowne St. before the paperback comes out (AND, to make it worse, toward the end they spelled it Landsdown!). All in all, a very enjoyable read - it would definitely make a good holiday gift for a Red Sox fan to help them get through the baseball-less winter.

Living in Boston, I grabbed Ballpark Blues from the library shelf when I saw Fenway Park on the cover. Overall, I loved the book. It was more a book about Russell figuring out who and what he wants to be in life than about baseball, but I think that ultimately made it a better book. I had a difficult time putting the book down as I really wanted to know what happened with Russ, Molly and Casey. And having lived with the ups and downs of the Red Sox for 30+ years, I am always happy to see them do well - even if it's in a book.

The dialogue was very realistic, nothing contrived or stilted and the story itself had great flow - no dull spots or lags.

My only complaints are that someone in the editing department didn't do their research. No one in New England knows what a northeaster is! A Nor'easter however, is a raging storm of wind, rain, sleet and sometimes snow. And Fenway Park and the many bars surrounding it aren't located on Lansdown Street, but are rather found on Lansdowne Street. Minor nits, of course, but details are important.

Overall, a great debut novel. I look forward to reading more from Mr. Tooke in the future.

Being partial to the Red Sox, and catchers, I thought this might be the one. The book has a promising start as Casey Fox and his Boswell Russ first cross paths at a college baseball game, and it continues to fulfill the potential for quite some time but ultimately sputters out, like a minor leaguer who gets hung up at the AA level. There is much to like, including the exploration of the Red Sox conundrum and the state of the Game, but it unfortunately veers into the pedantic. Two of the main characters are drawn well enough to hold the reader's interest, but the female lead is flat, a disappointment.

BALLPARK BLUES opens with a prologue in which we find thirty year old sportswriter Russell Bryant covering an NCAA Division III baseball game for the NEW YORK TIMES. A baseball scout tells Russ to keep an eye on Rhode Island College's catcher, Casey Fox.

As life would have it, Russ is prematurely on his way down the professional ladder. When Chapter One begins he has lost his job at THE TIMES and is now working for the PROVIDENCE DAILY JOURNAL. By contrast, Casey is on his way up the professional ladder and is found playing for the Boston Red Sox's Triple A Farm Team, Pawtucket. Russ is a cynical, but not unwise, young man who this reader liked immediately and grew to love by book's end. Casey, on the other hand, is a troubled, but immensely talented, young man who this reader disliked immediately and came to hate by book's end.

A tentative, unlikely friendship buds between them as each struggles "to find his place in the world" and to discern how he might best live his life. The "coming of age" and "spiritual journey" story disguised as a baseball book was a cliche long before C.W. Tooke wrote this one; and it has been done to greater effect by a number of writers.

This is Tooke's first novel, and he made a few freshmen mistakes. The most egregious of which is imbuing both his main characters with virtues and abilities beyond their respective years. Tooke might be forgiven for his fantasy had it remained benign. However, it is difficult to maintain a consistently believable narrative if the more fantastic elements of the story trump the book's overarching theme, and that is what happens here.

Despite the wit and humor of Tooke's narrator, the story is ultimately just silly. BALLPARK BLUES is readable, but not notable. As a first novel I would say that it is "average." C.W. Tooke did not hit a homerun in this his first "at-bat." No "Rookie of the Year Honors" for this one, but maybe the kid has a future.

Although the list of quality of adult baseball fiction is regrettably short, I really thought this might have have a chance. It starts out quite well- phenom, disaffected writer and his conscience and has some humor to it, but, it runs out of steam in the second half of the book with a lot of pontificating and self rightous indignation.
Most unfortunotely, there is the inevitable "BIG GAME". Why must every baseball fiction writer use the same cliche? Still, in all, it's better than most and certainly worth a read

i do hate reading but i found myself invested in this book. tooke did a great job of keeping me wanting more at each chapters end. it is a quick read, entertaining and funny. tooke actually made me laugh out loud twice and being the bitter cynic that i am, he should be proud. definitely worth a look.

The book is readable but by the end I was wishing I hadn't wasted the time spent reading it. The author creates a character in Russell Bryant who is a sportswriter who doesn't really seem to like his job or sports in general. He's not a likeable character to begin with and the choices he makes throughout the story make him even less so. But at least he's realistic. The character of Casey Fox is a complete fairy tale. A rookie catcher who is inexplicably the greatest ballplayer of his generation even though he quit little league and didn't play baseball again until college. So he leads the Red Sox as they chase down the Yankees in the pennant race - despite several of his outlandish and childish stunts.

The ending is utterly ridiculous and made me want to give up on reading altogether.

C.W. Tooke's "Ballpark Blues" was a solid first novel. He is a fine writer, who can turn a phrase and he really understands pacing. I couldn't wait to get to each successive chapter to find out what would happen to the characters. I ripped through the book rather quickly.

That said, I was also terribly frustrated. First, a small point: I have to believe Tooke was constantly stealing from the movie "Bull Durham" ... either that or there are some wild coincidences, like the funny exchange between pitcher and catcher at the mound; the intellectual woman reading to her lover in bed; the team sliding in the mud after a loss -- all scenes from the movie. I like the movie, too, but be original.

Secondly, I didn't like the characters. People kept saying the star player Casey could be so much more. Really? He struck me as a small town jock with a quick temper. The protagonist's constant whine-fest grew old; and the gal was a typical East Coast/private school snob, thinking she can save the world by going to Central America (surely a stay that will last one year so she could put it on her resume). I was constantly intrigued by what would happen to the characters, but I never liked them.

Finally, Tooke sells out his readers with a Hollywood made-for-movie ending at an airport. Casey was made for baseball, not to work with orphans in Central America or just gaze longingly at his girlfriend on the beach. Also, being a part-time junior college instructor (see "Bull Durham" again, Susan Sarandon character) and lowly freelance writer is supposedly better than working for Sports Illustrated. Uh ... OK, but I'm not buying it.

Whose to say the protagonist had to cover pro sports at SI, perhaps he could've been a writer (like SI's Gary Smith) who covers a wide range of very intersting subjects? The constant whining about pro sports and how baseball isn't like it used to be is recycled over and over again.

The good news is Tooke has some writing talent and many things he does get right in the book, like the depiction of cynical/aging journalists. He hits that spot-on. I hope he continues to grow and I would read a second novel if/when he produces one ... or perhaps he's as frustrated as his protagonist and has writer's block.

This book does a great job of demonstrating both the love and loathing we all share concerning the national past time of baseball. As professional sports have become big business and ball players have lost sight of the need to be characters of integrity, we, the fans, are left with questions about why this system has become what it is. I thoroughly enjoyed the questions and answers that Mr. Tooke offers through this great book. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I have.