Customer Reviews

For Love of the Game

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4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book, found in manuscript form among the author's papers after his death, is like an ode to the purity of the game of baseball. The protagonist, Billy Chapel, is a throwback to the old glory days of the sport, when players spent their whole careers with one team, and had annual meetings with the team owner to iron out next year's contract.

Chapel is about to take the mound at the end of his 17th big-league season, for a losing team, playing before 80,000 fans in Yankee Stadium (must have been the old, larger House that Ruth built) against a team desperately needing the win for a playoff berth. Amidst personal crisis (Chapel hears a rumor that he's been traded, and his girlfriend is destined to marry another), he tries to block out everything and go out in style, giving it all he's got for one majestic, final game.

The book is written like an internal monologue, and especially in between innings Chapel reminisces about childhood, about his chance encounter with the beautiful Carol and their amorous adventures together, and about his departed parents. The scene of Billy pretending to sleep in the backseat of his folks' car, while they marvel at his talent and discuss how special he is, was especially moving. Chapel is so introspective that he is essentially roused out of his reverie to take the mound each inning by his catcher and best friend Gus.

I liked the interplay between the baseball game and the dream-like flashbacks, although readers should understand that this is more than just a novel about baseball. Themes such as solitude, grace under pressure, camaraderie between the pitcher and catcher, and the recognition that Billy is an aging athlete playing what could be his last game are all explored in moving detail. I read the book this past week, against the backdrop of a classic game 7 World Series matchup between two old warhorses Clemens and Schilling, and could appreciate even more the way pitchers ignore the pain and lay it all on the line in big games. Shaara, whose masterpiece "The Killer Angels" explored the psyche of civil war veterans like Lee, Longstreet, Armistead and Hancock, does a good job getting inside the head of a hall of fame pitcher. The book is also nice and short, susceptible of being completed in one long sitting if desired. While some of his references may seem a bit dated (like athletes listening to Neil Diamond tapes the night before a game), the book is a winner.

I read this novel for the first time two months ago. I am difficult to please, and I find most "serious" contemporary fiction mediocre or worse. "For Love of the Game" was outstanding in almost every respect, and reminded me of the joys of reading great fiction.

There are many things that truly impressed me about this novel: the compact, but rich telling of the two stories in the book -- the aging ballplayer's last game and his breakup with his girlfriend of four years; the compelling descriptions of the ballplayer's inner thoughts as the game progresses; the riveting description of the final play of the game; and finally, the moving end to the story.

This short novel is far more than a book for sports fans -- it is truly a work of art.

As a rule, I generally avoid contemporary books which focus on too narrow a subject (see Tom Clancy, Robin Cook) because I can't stand how the technical subject becomes the focus of the book instead of mere table dressing. In reading For Love of the Game, I was apprehensive because I'm no real fan of baseball. But, to my delight, the game is not "about" baseball. It's about a man, a success by any measure, struggling with what he has really accomplished and what he can look foward to after being told that he is no longer wanted by the team that he has loyally served for so many years. Shaara does a good job of melding several different memories into a coherent concious and the reader, in the end, gains not only perspective into the main character, Billy Chaple, but also into himself.

Michael Shaara worked on this book before he died. It is obvious that he never quite finished it, because it is little more than a short story, and it lacks a second act. It is a clever literary mechanism, constructing, evaluating, and analyzing one's life within a baseball game, but I am sure Michael would have liked to work on it some more. Eventually it was found by son Jeff, who has at this point has surpassed his father's literary output. Jeff had the manuscript published, apparently without any modifications, and it later served as the basis for the Kevin Costner-Kelly Preston film of the same name.

No one is a bigger fan of the Shaaras' work than I, but this is not the best of the lot. The ending of the book is a bit hokey and not too well-explained. The screenwriters for the film understood this and changed the ending, and added many characters and plot lines. Actually it is not a bad film, despite the uneven performance of Miss Preston, and Kevin Costner being way too old, even for an aging ball player, and not athletic or fit enough.

Billy Chapel is an old school ballplayer, 17 years pitching for the same team (never identified in the book, the Detroit Tigers in the film). He is a superstar, heading for the Hall of Fame, when he finds out very late in the season, that he is to be traded. He is to pitch that day against the hated Yankees, and even though his team has been long eliminated from contention, Chapel plans to give his best performance on what could be his last day.

Complicating all this baseball business is his strange relationship with Jane, an aspiring editor, who told him that morning they are through, since he does not really need her, in her view. Chapel's relationship with this woman has lasted for years, but been very non-committal and unstructured.

Of course, Chapel pitches well on this day at Yankee Stadium, he is clearly in the zone. Inning by inning, we learn the backstory, how his father taught him the game, the early deaths of his parents, how the business end of baseball changed in nearly two decades, and his relationship with the former team owner. His relationship with Jane is explained from the first meeting, including their rules of engagement.

After the game, Chapel has another discussion with Jane. That is about it for the book. The movie is considerably fleshed out with additional characters like Vince Scully (he is nearly a co-star as he broadcasts the game for Fox), Steve "Psycho" Lyons (who is as forgettable as an announcer as he was as a player), Jane's daughter and her father, the team trainer, the old and new owners, and a rookie Yankee player who is the son of a former Chapel teammate. To make it even more interesting the film adds a sub-plot with Chapel suffering an injury, Jane playing a key role in preventing it from becoming life-threatening, Chapel treating her badly, and Chapel eventually returning to form.

The book has some issues that will bother baseball fans, like Chapel batting in an AL park where the DH would be in effect, and a line-up with an inconsistent order. None of that really matters, and is all throughly fixed in the film. Actual MLB umpires appear as do former players, though not of any note.

Just for fun, the film includes a Jose Canseco-type player, who fields fly balls off his head. Fortunately there is no appearance by steroids or Madonna (speaking of aging stars from Detroit).

This book, published after the death of Pulitzer Prize winner Shaara, was not the final draft the author had in mind. What we have is a stream of thought and action story about getting old and yearning for the opportunities of our youth. Hemingway's Santiago was faced with 84 days without catching a fish. Shaara's pitcher is faced with the same type of problem and approaches it with the same intensity - all of his life has led to this moment. Shaara's message to the reader is that each moment is a culmination of our experiences and "growing up" is realizing that.

Shutting out everything, concentrating on that one goal, time and time again. Why? All for the love of the game.

This little gem of a book was found by the author's son and published posthumously. Though it is no Gettysburg, it is a wonderful book from an author who left us too early before we got a chance to know him.

Billy Chapel is an aging major league baseball who once knew the pinnacle of greatness. But age has taken over, and he is on the verge of being put out to pasture--or as rumors roam--being traded. He is pitching his last game of the season, and as he pitches he ruminates over his life over a stream of conscienceless of thought. He knows it is the end of his career, but he is not going without a flash and begins to pitch the best game of his life. As he pitches, he begins to think back on his life, but as he does so he stays focus on the game--the perfect game. Why? For the love of the game.

There are no simple answers to his life. Nothing but memories, the future, and the love of the game.

A perfect little book from a great author.

The film For The Love Of The Game was loosely based upon this book. The film & book share Billy Chapel, Gus the catcher, an off season home in Colorado, a suddenly broken relationship, and an attempt at a perfecto, but the film fleshed out the characters(including the book's main subject, Billy Chapel)far more than the book did(which is odd), changed his lover's name to Jane & gave her a daughter, and gave us the character of the team owner(played in the film by Brian Cox).

For the love of Mike, how can a modern baseball book make a mistake such as having an American League pitcher bat in Yankee Stadium? While I'd love to see the DH rule go away & DIE, it is a reality.

Overall, an unfortunate second-rate book by a first-rate author.

Heard FOR LOVE OF THE GAME by Michael Sahara,

a posthumously published baseball novel by the Pulitzer Prize

winning author of THE KILLING ANGELS . . . you might have

to dig some to find it, but your search will be worth the

effort.

This is a short, surprisingly moving tale of an aging baseball

superstar who is pitching the last game of the season . . . through

a series of flashbacks, you learn about his career and the

one woman he loves (but who is leaving him).

The writing is compelling, and it makes you feel that you

really get to know the guy . . . plus, it has you rooting for

his every pitch and caring about what happens to him.

There's a great ending, too.

Sports fiction is the sort of stuff that makes most literary buffs shudder with horror, much along the lines of romance novels and crime stories. However, Michael Shaara is able to tell a story that is more about one man's pride, doubts, and affections in the framework of nine perfect innings.

More like a fable than a novella, and therefore lacking the complexities of character that make for the absolute best of the best literature, "For Love of the Game" nevertheless will stand as a classic American narrative.

With a zen-like simplicity and clarity of vision, this beautiful story about a man's growth into the fullness of his life reminds us of what is important in life, of what makes living worth the effort.

The comparison to Hemingway is a good one; both authors write with amazing economy. But Shaara is softer and gentler, and his prose somehow manages to be paradoxically both more lyrical and more transparent.

Despite its simplicity, you'll want to read this one more than once.