About book Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion (2004)
Five Seasons is a great series of essays Angell penned between 1972 and 1977, mostly for the New Yorker. This period, Angell argues, was the most significant half-decade in the game's history. I don't know if he's changed his mind about that claim since the foreword was written, but the pieces included here make a compelling case.The level of play during the 1970s, particularly in the postseason, was remarkably high. These years were also marked by labor strife and the beginnings of free agency. The particulars of these events are not unfamiliar to baseball fans but it is interesting to see a good writer react to them as they unfolded through the mid 70s. Angell loves the Mets (and the great Tom Seaver) and his recounting of the 1973 pennant race is very memorable. I also appreciated the attention Angell pays to the ageing, but still very good, Detroit Tiger teams of that era. There is, of course, a long piece describing the already exhaustively covered '75 Series. This may have been my least favorite story in the collection and I suspect that is only because I have heard so much about it (and seen film of, I think, every game) that it's grown tiresome. But it's great stuff for Reds fans who want to relive the win and a keeper for Sox fans who feel they didn't receive sufficient attention from Ken Burns.The best articles in the book include a long piece about scouting (my favorite), a great story about Horace Stoneham, and the famous Steve Blass article "Gone For Good". It's worth picking up a copy for these three essays alone. This really is an essential read for baseball fans, particularly those of us who began to follow the game in the years that followed the ones Angell covers here. So many of the exceptional young players that pop up throughout the book were, by the time I was following the game closely, established veterans. Here we get a chance to find out how the early years went for them and how so many of the great players and journeymen of the previous generation wrapped up their careers.
What a lovely book. Angell is a gorgeous writer, and he brings baseball to the level of poetry, always--something that's not that hard to do, because baseball is just so lovely. A great narrative, broken into pieces as it may be, of a significant time in the history of the game, where Henry Aaron breaks the Babe's record, where the DH and free agency rules completely change the complexion of the game, and the Big Red Machine and the great Oakland A's teams dominant the league. But the greatest part of the book is the simple, beautiful narratives of individual people. The tales of a pitcher who loses his stuff mysteriously, and of a scout driving the rural roads of America looking for young men he knows won't, ultimately, make it--those are just incredible narratives. Anyone who loves baseball should read this. Anyone who loves good writing should read this. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, anyone who wants to understand, in complex and lovely ways, the relationship between America and American sports, in all its contradictions and strangeness and beauties, should read this book, as Angell does a really magnificent job evoking this.
Do You like book Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion (2004)?
A collection of five years of Angell's reporting on baseball for the New Yorker. It's worth tracking down for the first essay alone, the marvelous "On the Ball," which made me see the game and the pitcher's natural advantage over the batter in a new light. Angell brings wit and curiosity, and most of all a fierce love for the game. He teaches the reader in a way that reminds me why I don't like baseball broadcasters -- they rarely explain anything about strategy or technique. The pieces that are narrative recaps of the seasons haven't aged as well, but there are gems throughout, like "Gone for Good," about the pitcher Steve Blass's sudden, inexplicable loss of control.
—Jonathan Hiskes
The only reason this is partially-read is that I'm giving it away.Perfect like baseball — marvelous cadences and moments of sheer hilarity. The prose is amazing, and the stories are even better.
—Grace
I grew up loving baseball because my family was a family of Red Sox fans. Baseball, for me, is the joy, and the pain, of loving a team who can shoot themselves in the foot every September almost without fail (until they don't -- but that's a different story!), but who still command devotion; of the sights and smells and feel of seeing a ballgame in a classic park, crowded into tiny seats, fans streaming in from immediately surrounding city; of knowing and caring who your starting lineup is; the sound of a ballgame on the radio on a hot summer night. Red Sox fans, like Cubs fans, and Tigers fans, are fans of the game because they are fans of their team. Roger Angell's book, FIVE SEASONS, covers a period in the early to mid-70s when baseball was going through some significant changes, and where we saw some of the finest players, with names we still recognize, play. So much changed at that time for which we still complain: a shift to caring about the numbers (early MONEYBALL); players' salaries; free agency. There is also the charm of reading about Pete Rose for his skill; of the Yankees and their losing seasons, playing at Shea while their stadium was being renovated; of the Oakland A's wild hair and mustaches; of the 1976 World Series. This is a book for the baseball lover, and Angell's wonderful writing highlights beautifully the pleasures and the passions of baseball.
—Stephanie
