The Seventh Game [Paperback]

Roger Kahn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1983

paperback.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Signet (March 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451121201
• ISBN-13: 978-0451121202
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,638,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Final Stand, April 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Seventh Game (Hardcover)

Johnny Longboat stands on the mound, trying to pitch the seventh game of the World Series. He's already won two games. He is probably the best pitcher in the game. However, his past is catching up with him. Inning after inning while he pitches, memories of his life and his struggles come back to remind him of what he had to go through. Longboat is forced, in the end, to find a way to work through a painful shoulder and even more painful memories. I won't give the ending away, but it is one of the two extremes you might expect. Kahn crafts a well designed story recognizing that life is continuous, while baseball is not.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great baseball book about more than just baseball, February 3, 2011

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Seventh Game (Hardcover)

This is a superb book about baseball, not because it is over the climactic seventh game of the World Series but because it covers the complete game. Johnny Longboat is a great pitcher and he is about to take the mound for the New York Mohawks in the seventh and deciding game of the World Series. However, he is 41 years old and his body, especially his pitching shoulder, keeps informing him that he has a lot of mileage.
Kahn does a superb job in bringing in the other aspects of major league baseball and have them as important supplements, to the point that the "big game at the end" is not the key aspect. There are flashbacks to Johnny's youth growing up in the flat and dusty plains of Oklahoma and his time in the minor leagues under a manager that knew everything about the game and taught him well. Johnny is an honorable man, yet he has a mistress for years while pitching and has a poor relationship with his only son. Changes in the game of baseball, such as the removal of the reserve clause and the ability of players to bargain are also interwoven within the story. One of the best parts is the role of the umpire; he remains impartial in making the calls but shows some real class and love for the game when Johnny is featured.
You know early in the book that this is not just another baseball book when a female sports reporter enters the locker room where Johnny is getting a rubdown before the start of the game. He agrees to an interview, but only if the female reporter strips naked to "join the team." It sounds a little raunchy and it is; yet this is the start of a plot thread that meanders through the book and points out the growing role of women in sports reporting. The interview also sets the stage for her role in the locker room after the game is over, where there is some real class exhibited by the winners and losers.
The best sports books are about more than just the winning of a game, they are about the social context within which baseball is played. While the title is about a single game of baseball, the book is about the complete game of life.