From here on in, I rag nobody.

June 4, 2007 7:23 AM

Mark Harris, author of my favorite baseball book, which was later turned into my favorite baseball movie, died last Wednesday.
posted by qldaddy (9 comments total)

Shame on the NYT. A guy like that deserved at least one baseball metaphor in his obit.
posted by three blind mice at 7:50 AM on June 4, 2007

Nice post, qldaddy. I've been touting "Bang the Drum Slowly" as the best baseball movie of all time for years -- mostly in vain.

My 11-year-old son just figured out how to beat me at TEGWAR.
posted by Bitstop at 10:00 AM on June 4, 2007

My favorite baseball book was Ball Four by Jim Bouton.

RIP Mr Harris
posted by Eekacat at 10:34 AM on June 4, 2007

Shame you're so far away Bitsop, I've been looking for a TEGWAR partner for years.
posted by qldaddy at 10:50 AM on June 4, 2007

The 1956 TV version with Paul Newman (I have it on laserdisc - don't think it's out on DVD) is very good too.
posted by QuietDesperation at 1:12 PM on June 4, 2007

Damn, I'm sorry to hear that. The Southpaw and Bang the Drum Slowly are among my very favorite baseball novels (I haven't read Coover's The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Proprietor in decades, but I remember liking it a lot, as I did Eric Greenberg's The Celebrant and Nancy Willard's Things Invisible To See; Malamud's The Natural, however, sucked, and the movie sucked even worse). Thanks for the post.
posted by languagehat at 2:05 PM on June 4, 2007

OK, since languagehat is narrowing it to baseball novels, Shoeless Joe is my favorite to memory. I've not made baseball novels something I pursued however. I still maintain that Ball Four is my favorite baseball book given it's real look at struggling to make it, the desire to stay there, and the lengths that someone would go to do so.
posted by Eekacat at 8:30 PM on June 4, 2007

RIP -- this is my favorite baseball book as well. And the movie is great.
posted by litlnemo at 11:28 PM on June 4, 2007

since languagehat is narrowing it to baseball novels

I just don't see the point in discussing "baseball books" as a whole. How can you compare Bang the Drum Slowly to, say, The Baseball Encyclopedia? If I could only take one baseball book to a desert island, it would be my treasured first edition of the latter, hands down. But I'd sure miss the Harris.

Oh, and thanks for reminding me of Shoeless Joe; that's a great one too!
posted by languagehat at 7:20 AM on June 5, 2007