Customer Reviews

Out At The Old Ball Game: A Novel

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This humorous,irreverent satire skewers the hypocrisy of American institutions, i.e., business, media, sports, through an entertaining, fast-moving plot involving the extraordinary success of the first all-gay major league baseball team. Fine characterization and inside looks at baseball and gay lifestyles combine with a non-preachy message to make this novel must reading for anyone who cares about contemporary issues. It would also make a helluva movie!

The best part of the book is its basic plot: a group of "outed" gay ML baseball players become a winning team, under the direction of a crusty, bigoted "old school" owner-manager. The normal development from that could not help but make for an entertaining and enjoyable book.

But the author goes too far ... including distracting side stories about a down-on-his-luck sports writer, religious leaders' takes on homosexuality, and a cheesey local cable TV operator who makes his daughter the team's TV commentator in order to keep her busy. I wasn't expecting (nor did I desire) any "PC" approach to gays, but the author ran with the classic stereotypes to the point where many of the non-gay characters are laughably clueless ... A lot less would have been a lot more, in my opinion.

While the premise of this very high-concept debut novel is indeed clever, the payoff is lacking. The baseball background lacks depth and believabilty, and the preciousness of the writing begins to wear on the reader, as one approachs the mediocre denouement.

To start the New Year I decided to attack my to-read pile from the bottom instead of the top. I selected OUT AT THE OLD BALL GAME by Bernie Bookbinder, published in 1995. While I had problems with the content of the novel, I found it very well written, and a great example of work that mixes point of view (POV) in a willy-nilly manner and still manages to pull-off an entertaining and cohesive read.

Most fiction tends to keep POV limited to one character at any given time, say by chapter or space-break. This fast paced novel prefers to mix and match, taking the reader from the mind of one character right into another in a matter of a sentence or two. Instead of being confusing and clunky, as this method of story-telling quite often is, OUT AT THE OLD BALL GAME rolls along smoothly and swiftly like a luxury sports-car, firing on all pistons.

The New York Gents are the laughing stock of baseball's National League. They're consistently at the bottom of their division, their game attendance is appalling, and they've even lost their television coverage. As the book begins, the team's one star player, Dick (Rootie) Toote holds a press conference to announce his homosexuality. Scrappy Schwrtznbrgr, the sleazy manager-owner of the Gents is appalled by the news. He planned to sell the team and retire to Florida, but with Toote's revelation he'll be lucky if he can give the team away.

Scrappy comes up with a plan after Toote, trying to explain his situation, inadvertently blurts out the names of several other closeted gay players in the league. Scrappy leaks the explosive information to the press, and once the bomb detonates, manages to buy each player's contract, thus assembling the first all gay team in major league history. The outcry from sports writers and team owners is universally vicious. Obnoxious Yankee's owner, Donald Bigg, even attempts, unsuccessfully, to have the Gents banned from baseball. However, the team's dominating performances on the field, as well as their dignified behavior off the field, eventually win over most of the public.

The novel is at its best when concentrating on the lives of the individual players, giving the reader insight into the nerve shattering consequences of public outing, as well as helping to destroy stereotypes concerning gay athletes. Unfortunately, there is precious little of this insight to be found. OUT AT THE OLD BALL GAME is, first and foremost, a baseball story, spending the majority of its pages exploring the effects the new team has on the established straight sporting community that surrounds it, and I, for one, found that emotionally disappointing.