A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti [Hardcover]

Kenneth S. Robson M.D. (Editor), David Halberstam (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 1998

With a foreword by David Halberstam. He spoke out against player trading. He banned Pete Rose from baseball for gambling. He even asked sports fans to clean up their acts. Bart Giamatti was baseball's Renaissance man and its commissioner. In A GREAT AND GLORIOUS GAME, a collection of spirited, incisive essays, Giamatti reflects on the meaning of the game. Baseball, for him, was a metaphor for life. He artfully argues that baseball is much more than an American "pastime." "Baseball is about going home," he wrote, "and how hard it is to get there and how driven is our need." And in his powerful 1989 decision to ban Pete Rose from baseball, Giamatti states that no individual is superior to the game itself, just as no individual is superior to our democracy. A GREAT AND GLORIOUS GAME is a thoughtful meditation on baseball, character, and values by one of the most eloquent men in the world of sport.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

By far the most literate of baseball's commissioners, the late Bart Giamatti, former president of Yale, was the game's most unashamedly vocal fan both before and during his tenure as chief executive. The child of immigrants, he embraced baseball's very Americanness, and ascribed to its simple goal--coming home--a far-reaching, overall metaphor. His ardor was unguarded and unabashed, his approach sentimental and as expansive as a pair of foul lines diverging in the distance. Giamatti's oversized passion infuses everything in this slim volume, from his wistful elegy to Tom Seaver and his admonition to fans to clean up their act, to his pained public statement banning Pete Rose from the game for life. Best of all, his seductively lyrical essay "The Green Fields of the Mind" leads off the lineup. The latter alone--it begins by poignantly observing of baseball, "It breaks your heart. It's designed to break your heart"--is worth the price of admission.

From Publishers Weekly

In the baseball pantheon, Giamatti occupies an unusual place: leaving the presidency of Yale University, he became the president of the National League and then, for the five months before his death in 1989, the commissioner of baseball. Although his writings on the subject were few, all radiated a love for the game as well as an appreciation of it as a metaphor for American life and, indeed, life in general. He saw baseball as quintessentially American because it combined individual achievement with successful teamwork and because, in a country where rootlessness appears to be a pervasive national characteristic, there is always the quest to go home. Yale clinical professor Robson has collected nine Giamatti writings, including the often-anthologized essay "The Green Fields of the Mind" and the statement banning Pete Rose from baseball for life, in which he notes that "no individual is superior to the game." The collection will appeal primarily to the most diehard baseball fans.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 121 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1st edition (January 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565121929
• ISBN-13: 978-1565121928
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #493,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An eloquent, erudite, and decent man, August 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti (Hardcover)

The collected writings of Bart Giamatti demonstrate the depth of appreciation he had toward our game. The first paragraph of "Green Fields of the Mind" alone should be the centerpiece for the canon of sports literature. His high esteem for all that is right in sports is further evinced in his courageous moral stand against Pete Rose.

Perhaps all the Pete Rose people would be well-served by reading this book. They would gain an exponentially greater appreciation for the wonder of baseball and afford themselves the opportunity to reflect on why Mr. Rose does not deserve a place in its shrine.

The only shame involving Giamatti is that he did not live long enough to eloquently and courageously defend his side of the sordid Rose affair, while Pete is able to hawk memorabilia, bleat self-righteously about his case, and sell his name to anyone with a fistful of cash and an agenda.

However, while it is tragic that Giamatti passed on too soon, we are lucky to have his writings to further stoke our interest in the great game, and to remind ourselves that some things are still worth fighting for.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, Thankfully, February 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti (Hardcover)

I read the essay "Green Fields of the Mind" in 1990 and have waited for a collection of Giamatti's work ever since. I know no other writer who so eloquently captures not only the magic of baseball, but how we experience it. I wish I could be half as passionate about my life as Giamatti was about the game we love. Buy the book and count how many times you tell yourself during its reading that you either need to lend it to a friend or buy a copy for someone you love. It transcends baseball without the obvious pretentions of academia. Should be read just before opening day, again on the day your favorite team is eliminated for the season and once more during the off-season.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very passionate man, July 17, 2000

By 

Larry Darrell "EazyIanish" (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti (Hardcover)

Throughout this book Giamatti is referred to as an idealist by others and at least once by himself. There is not a more accurate description of his writings contained in "A Great and Glorious Game."

What seperated Giamatti from others of like mind was his ability to act upon his impulses. Most famously, banishing Pete Rose from ever being associated with baseball again. An incredible unfortunate situation, but to all those who cannot accept Giamatti's judgment please read this book. For myself it clarified his motives and subsequent actions.

Beyond anything to do with Rose, this book is thoroughly engaging. Giamatti deftly exemplifies why many of us continually return to baseball every spring. Recommended for any baseball fan.