The Progress of the Seasons: Forty Years of Baseball in Our Town [Paperback]

George V. Higgins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1990

Why do certain professional athletes achieve immortality and others don't? With his sparkling, accurate prose, Higgins suggests some answers as he tells us about baseball and the ever-trying Boston Red Sox, about family and continuity and the passage of the seasons, delightfully weaving them all together with his insightful observations.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Higgins grew up in Boston, and in this history of the Red Sox, he weaves the events of his life into the hometown backdrop of athletic non-achievement at the shrine of Fenway Park. "At times Higgins appears mired in a lengthy newspaper column on Sox fans' frustrations; however, his obvious love, zeal and attachment to the subject enable him to tell his tale with style," said PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

To appreciate this book fully, it would probably help to know the Red Sox or to have visited Boston's Fenway Park. But the universality of baseball, its reflection of the cycles of life, and its stability amid change are themes presented by Higgins (a Boston criminal lawyer and veteran novelist of such works as The Friends of Eddie Coyle) in a storytelling mode similar to Thorton Wilder's Our Town. Higgins begins his baseball meditation with attending a game in Fenway in 1946 with his father and grandfather and closes with watching games today in the company of his son. Higgins plays with variations of John Pesky's assessment of baseball as a simple game that is hard to play. As love songs to Fenway Park go, this compares favorably with essays by Donald Hall (in his Fathers Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on Sport, Mostly Baseball, LJ 12/84) and John Updike (in Assorted Prose , Knopf, 1960). Good reading for adults.
- Thomas J. Reigstad, SUNY Coll., Buffalo
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Trade; 1 edition (April 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0137283040
• ISBN-13: 978-0137283040
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,390,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dan Shaughnessy wishes he could write like this, March 9, 2004

By 

Christopher Trott (Long Beach, MS United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Progress of the Seasons: Forty Years of Baseball in Our Town (Hardcover)

Not only the best book I've ever read about the Red Sox and what they mean to their fans, but the best book I've read about baseball and the significant place it has in our lives, whether we are aware of it or not. His referral to The Boss as 'King Steinbrenner the Odious' is as fitting a moniker of that man as I've ever heard. Simpy a shame so many of Higgins' books are out of print.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grandpa has some pull in heaven, February 21, 2005

By 

Jeanne Bushoven - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Progress of the Seasons: Forty Years of Baseball in Our Town (Paperback)

I have not received the book yet. I would like to think I came across this book by the hand of God. My father passed away this past May. He was a Red Sox fan his whole life, even though he had never seen them win a World Series. I have bought this book for my sons who are Yankee fans. I am going to write them a letter signing it Love Grandpa. So many of my father's friends and families could not believe that a man waits his whole life for his team to win and dies on the year it happens. My youngest son said that pop was in heaven asking God to take the curse off Boston and God seemed to have listened to him. Hoping pop did not ask God to put the curse on his Yankees. In memory of my dad, I hope this book will be a 5 star book to my sons.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Magnificent, June 8, 2000

By 

David S. (San Diego, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Progress of the Seasons (Audio Cassette)

George Higgins has done a great job of opening up the world of baseball, as well as tradition, life, and the passion the game holds. I thoroughly enjoyed this book