Books of Big Moments in the Stands and Beyond
Subheading
Pregame Pepper
. . . The first major league baseball team to draw 1,000,000+ fans in a season: the 1920 Yankees.
. . . The Dodgers have drawn 1,000,000+ fans in every MLB season from 1945-2004, and counting, apparently.
. . . The 1991 Blue Jays were the first MLB team to draw 4,000,000+ fans at home.
. . . Not counting pandemic-shortened 2020, the lowest known MLB home attendance for a full season is the 1935 St. Louis Browns—who drew 80,922 fans at home all season long.
. . . The highest-known MLB home attendance for a full season is the 1993 Rockies—who drew 4,483,350 fans in their first year of regular National League play.
Leading Off
Stories from the Stands and Beyond
Review: Eric C. Gray, Bases to Bleachers and Backyards to Ballparks
By David Saltzer
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.
—James Earl Jones as Terrance Mann, in Field of Dreams.
Now that I’m retired, I have plenty of time on my hands read books when I’m not watching a baseball game. I am very blessed in that my wife and family love baseball as much as I do, and during the season, there’s always a game on somewhere in my house.
My wife has yet to retire, so to help fill my time, she bought me two books that I highly recommend to any and all baseball fans. The first is Bases to Bleachers: A Collection of Personal Baseball Stands and Beyond. The second is its sequel Backyards to Ballparks: More Personal Baseball Stories from the Stands and Beyond.
Both are written by Eric C. Gray. Both started when Eric asked his family “What is your most favorite game that you’ve attended?” His family and friends ran with the question and then spread it out to get more stories. In the end, the books are easy reads and feel like “Chicken Soup for the Soul” meets baseball.
And, it seems as though the question expanded into “What does baseball mean to you?” or “What is your favorite baseball memory?” Fans from all generations, and even some baseball players themselves, answer these questions. All teams and time periods are represented, so fans from all generations will appreciate the stories. Both are as if the person telling the story is right there, reading it to you.
Personally, I can tell you that baseball saved my life. (Maybe if Eric writes a third book, I’ll share my story. So reading how Jim Abbott, one of my absolute favorite players, and the subject of my college essay that got me into my dream school, would meet with kids with hand differences before games, and without cameras really touched my heart.
But what really hooked me was how many others had incredible moments with the game or the people who play the game. While everyone is human and entitled to a bad day, many times baseball players can make incredible differences in people’s lives. Just a little brush with greatness can instill a lifetime of memories, whether it’s a player handing a ball to a kid, signing an autograph for a long-time fan, etc.
What’s really more enjoyable is reading about this from fans all around the country—and even the world—to show how much of a reach baseball has and how much of an impact it has. It proves why baseball was always and still is America’s pastime.
As Terrance Mann said of baseball itself, these books remind us of all that once was good. These stories are short (one or two pages, typically), and loosely organized into chapters. But it’s easy to pick up the books (and a lot harder to put down) and read a story or two and think about how lucky that fan was to have that interaction. These books will definitely capture the hearts of any baseball fan, whether a casual fan or a diehard.
Now I’m sharing these books with all of my family, including my sons who play varsity high school baseball or in college baseball. Sometimes, I share a story with my wife, my mom, and other family members, and they all want to read the books. Whether it’s during the season or offseason, these books show why baseball is so special.
David Saltzer is a senior writer at AngelsWin.com. He is a now-retired high school history and science teacher, and a lifelong Angels fan.
Extra Innings: What They Said
When I began writing sports pieces for The New Yorker, it was clear to me that the doings of big-league baseball . . . were so enormously reported in the newspapers that I would have to find some other aspect of the game to study. I decided to sit in the stands—for awhile, at least—and watch the baseball from there. I wanted to concentrate not just on the events down on the field but on their reception and results. I wanted to pick up the feel of the game as it happened to the people around me. Right from the start, I was terribly lucky, because my first year or two in the seats behind first or third coincided with the birth and grotesque early sufferings of the Mets, which turned out to be the greatest fan story of all.
—Roger Angell, in The Summer Game. (Viking Press, 1972; Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press, 2005.)
The fact of baseball being such a great spectacle made its commercialisation easy . . . How odd it would be, though, if a generation should grow up which knew not baseball! America would no longer seem like America.
—Albert Jay Nock, in “Decline and Fall”; collected in The Book of Journeyman: Essays from the New Freeman. (1930; republished, 1967.)
The Old Guy stood in a corner
Tending a bleacher stile
And watching the rushing thousands
And smiling that wry, dry smile.
While I thought as I heard the turnstile
Playing its whining tune
That most of us, when we are Old Guys
Learn we were born too soon.
—Damon Runyon, in “The Old Guy’s Lament,” 5 October 1921; republished in Guys, Dolls, and Curveballs: Damon Runyon on Baseball. (Jim Reisler, editor; 2005.)
When the great scorer comes to mark against your name, it's not whether you won or lost but how many paid to see the game.
—Peter Bavasi, general manager of the Padres (1973-76) and the Blue Jays. (1976-1981.)
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.