Cardboard Gods is the memoir of Josh Wilker, a brilliant writer who has marked the stages of his life through the baseball cards he collected as a child. It also captures the experience of growing up obsessed with baseball cards and explores what it means to be a fan of the game. Along the way, as we get to know Josh, his family, and his friends, we also get Josh’s classic observations about the central artifacts from his life: the baseball cards themselves. Josh writes about an imagined correspondence with his favorite player, Carl Yastrzemski; he uses the magical bubble-blowing powers of journeyman Kurt Bevacqua to shed light on the weakening of the powerful childhood bond with his older brother; he considers the doomed utopian back-to-the-land dreams of his hippie parents against the backdrop of inimitable 1970s baseball figures such as “Designated Pinch Runner” Herb Washington and Mark “The Bird” Fidrych. Cardboard Gods is more than just the story of a man who can’t let go of his past, it’s proof that — to paraphrase Jim Bouton — as children we grow up holding baseball cards but in the end we realize that it’s really the other way around.
Cardboard Gods
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Review
“Josh Wilker’s Cardboard Gods is a poignant and vivid account of how and why he accessed baseball cards as a survival tool while negotiating a 1970s childhood marked by changing mores and confusing mixed messages. This is a story of brotherly love, survival of the also-ran, and the hope that quickens a kid’s heartbeat each time he rips open a fresh pack of baseball cards, gets a whiff of bubble gum, and, holding his breath, sees who he’s got as opposed to who and what he needs. If you love the writing of Dave Eggers or Augusten Burroughs, you just may love Josh Wilker’s Cardboard Gods, too. I did.”
--Wally Lamb, New York Times bestselling author of She’s Come Undone and The Hour I First Believed
“Josh Wilker writes as beautifully about baseball and life as anyone ever has.”
--Rob Neyer, ESPN
“This is a story, at its heart, about growing up in America. More specifically it’s about growing up at a time when country, author, and the great American game of baseball were simultaneously in a state of flux. Hippies, post-Watergate Nixonites, parents, kids, teens, and even baseball, forever altered with the introduction of free agency, all grasping at a murky, anxious future. Josh Wilker, using seemingly random baseball cards pulled from his childhood, and the memories and metaphors they invoke, guides us through the restless and awkward story of his life (so far) with grace, pain, and ultimately vindication. In short, it's a story about baseball and America and his (our) generation.”
--David Cross, actor, comedian, and author of I Drink for a Reason
“Cardboard Gods is more than just a book. It is something that I lived and live still. I was the older brother. I live on Route 14 like Josh once did. My two sons were those boys in the picture, VW bus and all. Cardboard Gods awakened feelings in me that I have long suppressed. It is a growth book, like Catcher in the Rye. People, especially people who love baseball, will carry this book with them everywhere.”
--Bill Lee, bestselling author of The Wrong Stuff, Red Sox legend, baseball bat entrepreneur
“A warm, rich and funny recollection of one American boyhood as viewed through the unimpeachable prism of baseball cards. Literate, nostalgic and sneaky fast.”
--Brendan Boyd, author of Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book
“Every baseball card is a story, a player, a history eroding. Josh Wilker understands this profoundly, and scrambles to bring those stories, his stories, to life in uproarious and moving fashion. Just don’t put this book in your bike spokes.”
--Will Leitch, author of God Save the Fan, New York magazine contributing editor, Deadspin.com founding editor
“Josh Wilker has pulled of as nifty of double play as Tinkers-Evers-and-Chance ever executed in Cardboard Gods, reimagining the baseball cards of his youth and effortlessly turning them into a lamp to shine on his own memories in this fascinating read.”
--Bert Randolph Sugar, author of Bert Sugar’s Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America’s Greatest Game
“To say Josh Wilker writes beautifully about baseball, or boyhood—as he does—is to halve his ample achievement. Like Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes, Cardboard Gods nails the worshipful contortions and rueful ecstasies of fandom, and its pure dexterity with memory amounts to an athletic event of its own. Evocative, painful, affectionate and funny, Cardboard Gods is astonishing. Like Henry Aaron’s home run ball described herein, Wilker’s book wears its own halo.”
--Matthew Specktor, critically acclaimed author of That Summertime Sound
“We never went bug-eyed over Xboxes and flickering computers connected to the 'net. We lost ourselves in baseball cards, our childhoods forever marked and remembered through the greats and goofballs spread across our bedroom floors. In Josh Wilker's wonderful book, Cardboard Gods, he reconnects all of us through those snarky, smart-ass and often confusing days of our youth. Thank goodness Mrs. Wilker never threw out those cards. Josh always knew they’d be worth something.”
--Adrian Wojnarowski, author of The Miracle of St. Anthony
--Wally Lamb, New York Times bestselling author of She’s Come Undone and The Hour I First Believed
“Josh Wilker writes as beautifully about baseball and life as anyone ever has.”
--Rob Neyer, ESPN
“This is a story, at its heart, about growing up in America. More specifically it’s about growing up at a time when country, author, and the great American game of baseball were simultaneously in a state of flux. Hippies, post-Watergate Nixonites, parents, kids, teens, and even baseball, forever altered with the introduction of free agency, all grasping at a murky, anxious future. Josh Wilker, using seemingly random baseball cards pulled from his childhood, and the memories and metaphors they invoke, guides us through the restless and awkward story of his life (so far) with grace, pain, and ultimately vindication. In short, it's a story about baseball and America and his (our) generation.”
--David Cross, actor, comedian, and author of I Drink for a Reason
“Cardboard Gods is more than just a book. It is something that I lived and live still. I was the older brother. I live on Route 14 like Josh once did. My two sons were those boys in the picture, VW bus and all. Cardboard Gods awakened feelings in me that I have long suppressed. It is a growth book, like Catcher in the Rye. People, especially people who love baseball, will carry this book with them everywhere.”
--Bill Lee, bestselling author of The Wrong Stuff, Red Sox legend, baseball bat entrepreneur
“A warm, rich and funny recollection of one American boyhood as viewed through the unimpeachable prism of baseball cards. Literate, nostalgic and sneaky fast.”
--Brendan Boyd, author of Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book
“Every baseball card is a story, a player, a history eroding. Josh Wilker understands this profoundly, and scrambles to bring those stories, his stories, to life in uproarious and moving fashion. Just don’t put this book in your bike spokes.”
--Will Leitch, author of God Save the Fan, New York magazine contributing editor, Deadspin.com founding editor
“Josh Wilker has pulled of as nifty of double play as Tinkers-Evers-and-Chance ever executed in Cardboard Gods, reimagining the baseball cards of his youth and effortlessly turning them into a lamp to shine on his own memories in this fascinating read.”
--Bert Randolph Sugar, author of Bert Sugar’s Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America’s Greatest Game
“To say Josh Wilker writes beautifully about baseball, or boyhood—as he does—is to halve his ample achievement. Like Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes, Cardboard Gods nails the worshipful contortions and rueful ecstasies of fandom, and its pure dexterity with memory amounts to an athletic event of its own. Evocative, painful, affectionate and funny, Cardboard Gods is astonishing. Like Henry Aaron’s home run ball described herein, Wilker’s book wears its own halo.”
--Matthew Specktor, critically acclaimed author of That Summertime Sound
“We never went bug-eyed over Xboxes and flickering computers connected to the 'net. We lost ourselves in baseball cards, our childhoods forever marked and remembered through the greats and goofballs spread across our bedroom floors. In Josh Wilker's wonderful book, Cardboard Gods, he reconnects all of us through those snarky, smart-ass and often confusing days of our youth. Thank goodness Mrs. Wilker never threw out those cards. Josh always knew they’d be worth something.”
--Adrian Wojnarowski, author of The Miracle of St. Anthony
Review
“Poignant and vivid . . . If you love the writing of Dave Eggers or Augusten Burroughs, you just may love Cardboard Gods, too. I did.” —Wally Lamb, author of The Hour I First Believed
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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More About the Author
Josh Wilker is the author of eleven books and writes about his life and his childhood baseball cards at cardboardgods.net. Since his first posting in 2006, his site has been featured in The New York Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, and ESPN.com. He is a winner of the Howard Frank Mosher Prize for Short Fiction and has an MFA from Vermont College. He lives with his wife in Chicago.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
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This review is from: Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards (Hardcover)
I should preface my review that I was a blogger alongside the author at [...] and I'm mentioned in the acknowledgments for the book. However, I bought the book myself.
When I tried to describe what Cardboard Gods was about to some friends, I had a hard time. It's a book that is not just read for pleasure, but it also takes you back in time in a way that even a history book can't do. Cardboard Gods is, in a nutshell, one man's way of piecing together a narrative about his life (especially his childhood) using baseball cards. But that really doesn't do the book justice. The baseball cards are not just pictures of players from over 30 years ago. Instead, they are launching points to get the reader involved with the life of the author. Wilker expertly weaves together the two threads about his life (growing up most of his life in Vermont with his mother and her boyfriend while his father lived in New York) and the baseball cards and players of the late 1970s. For a book of a little over 240 pages, there is so much to learn. Even for someone who had a pretty good idea how Josh Wilker's story would come out, I was captivated by the story. It is a unique contribution to baseball literature. It is a valuable contribution to literature all together.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Baseball's Relationship with Everyday Life,
By Larry Underwood "Author - St Louis Cardinals ... (Scottsdale, AZ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards (Hardcover)
Baseball cards have been around forever - at least since the latter part of the 19th century - giving fans from all walks of life a tangible link to the players on display; from the frequently stiff and absurdly posed phony "action shots" on the front, to a statistical summary of the players' on field performance on the back. Holding the players "in the palm of your hand", or on display in protective card albums typically gives fans a wide range of emotions; from the warm fuzzy feeling we have for our personal heroes to the sheer disdain we have for an enemy player, or one of marginal ability who seems to be in every new pack we buy, taunting us with their useless duplication.
Without a doubt, we're hooked on collecting these little "cardboard gods"; and the author of this book, Josh Wilker, has paid a personal tribute to many of the cards he collected as a kid from the mid '70s - early '80s, with a wonderful narrative that is well-written, at times humorous, and at times quite poignant, as he relives the memories - some good, some not so good - that each card evokes. From Bake McBride to Thurman Munson; from Jim Rice to Rickey Henderson; each story is told with refreshing candor and eloquence as Wilker rehashes various events from his rather difficult and mundane childhood; always, it's the memories which are attached directly to his personal collection. For every memory the author shares, the reader will more than likely relive their own personal anecdotes that are directly related to that particular card. As an avid collector for many years, I have most of the cards the author shares, including the 1980 Rickey Henderson rookie card, which by chance, seemed to be the most common card that came in the batch of "random" cards I purchased. I'm sure the folks at Topps had no idea this guy was going to be the best leadoff hitter in baseball history when they doled them out to buyers in time for the '80 season. Whether you're a big baseball fan or simply interested in American pop culture, you'll more than likely find this "All-American Tale" a fascinating, compelling, and highly enlightening journey through Josh Wilker's childhood. It's quite a story and one that I highly recommend reading for yourself.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Raw, honest, and worthwhile...,
This review is from: Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards (Hardcover)
They were gods. Of course. Why didn't I think of that? Unattainable. Above all. Beside all. Surrounding all. They permeated my life.
From his love of Yastrzemski to his views askew at Rowland Office, Carmen Fanzone, et al, Josh Wilkers has written a marvel of a book that hit home for me. My era was 1967 through 1975; my cards wound up elsewhere. Not because my mother tossed them, but because in a few fits of perceived adult behavior I threw a bunch away and later sold a batch at a moving sale to an old woman who signed her Social Security check over to me. On occasion, my gods scream to me from their grubby graves, and some return via eBay. As for some reviewers who point out that this book is not for kids, I argue that it is. With supervision. You don't protect kids from predatory adults by hiding their existence. This book would have thrilled me as a twelve to fifteen year old and it would have opened my eyes to the very real potential of encountering bad people at a time when I could have used a lesson in that sort of reality. It would have given me a better grasp on the fact that adults are just older kids: good, bad, ugly. Josh Wilkers' honesty is refreshing, his language considered but never forced, and his insights worthwhile. On the cover, Comedian David Cross jokes that even Canadians might enjoy this book - but probably not Mexicans. I would argue that most card-collecting baseball fans will enjoy this book, but probably not Yankees fans. The author's childish, inappropriate reaction to the untimely death of Thurman Munson was jarring and unexpected. Not the reaction, but the guts it took to share. Raw, real stuff. Thanks, Josh. I'll be hanging around cardboardgods.net.
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