Baseball's Best Short Stories

Baseball's Best Short Stories
Baseball's Best Short Stories

Baseball's Best Short Stories

Edited by Paul D. Staudohar

Sporting's Best Short Stories series

FICTION

440 Pages, 6 x 9

Formats: Trade Paper

Trade Paper, $19.99 (CA $26.99) (US $19.99)

ISBN 9781613743768

Rights: WOR

Chicago Review Press (Apr 2012)

Price: $19.99
 
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9781613743768
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Overview

“Staudohar has hit it out of the park.” —Publishers Weekly
No other sport has inspired as many great writers as baseball and this exceptional anthology brings together 34 short stories about the national pastime. The stories span several decades and are written by some of America's favorite writers, including Zane Grey, James Thurber, Robert Penn Warren, T. C. Boyle, and Michael Chabon, among others. Many of the stories are about the game itself, while others use baseball as a backdrop for timeless themes, such as morality, greed, and love. Nine new stories have been added for this new edition and include "Bullet in the Brain" by Tobias Wolff, in which baseball is the surprising last memory of a dying man; George Plimpton's "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch," a story about a fictional baseball player who throws a 150-mph fastball and was a notorious April Fools' Day hoax in Sports Illustrated; and Leslie Pietrzyk's "What We All Want" about a pitcher's wife's concern for her aging husband. This collection is for all baseball lovers—long after the season is over.

Reviews

"You needn't be a sports fan to enjoy these 34 hugely entertaining tales."  —Reader's Digest

"A thoroughly enjoyable addition to any library, whether or not the original is still on the shelves."  —Booklist

"An exciting collection of some of the best 20th-century writers venturing into some unexpected venues."  —Arizona Daily Star

"This delightful collection, running from photographic realism to fantasy, is baseball at its best. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but these stories demonstrate that fiction can be truer than fact. If you like baseball, you owe yourself this treat."  —Leonard Koppett, Hall of Fame Sportswriter

"Staudohar has hit it out of the park."  —Publishers Weekly

"[Baseball's Best Short Stories] brings back a lot of good memories of my playing days. Also, great stories of old-time players."  —Stan Musial, former player for the St. Louis Cardinals

"Baseball fans and those who appreciate its cultural impact will welcome this. Highly recommended."  —Library Journal

"The classic collection for the 21st century . . . Every American home needs a bookcase devoted to baseball literature, from Bernard Malamud's The Natural to Elliot Asinof's Eight Men Out. Make a little more room for this one."  —Creative Loafing Tampa

Author Biography

Paul D. Staudohar is the editor of 10 anthologies of short stories including Best Dog Stories, Fishing’s Best Short Stories, Football’s Best Short Stories, Golf’s Best Short Stories, Hunting’s Best Short Stories, and Murder Short and Sweet. He lives in Lafayette, California.

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Golf's Best Short Stories
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Edited by Paul D. Staudohar

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Published Mar 1999

Every decade of the 20th century and many great writers, including P. G. Wodehouse, Paul Gallico, Don Marquis, and John Updike, are represented in these great tales of golf. British duffers, amateur sleuths, pros, hustlers, plodders, cheaters, starry-eyed lovers, and crass finaglers people these stories, which range from comedy to tragedy, mystery, action, introspection, and romance. Each reveals a true love of the game and a wry understanding of golf’s frustrations, perplexities, embarrassments, and moments of pure delight.
Hunting's Best Short Stories
Hunting's Best Short Stories ›
Edited by Paul D. Staudohar

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Published Oct 2002

In this powerful collection, classics including Guy de Maupassant’s “Love” and Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” join contemporary offerings such as Wallace Stegner’s “The Blue-Winged Teal,” “On the Antler” by E. Annie Proulx, and David Quammen’s “Walking Out.” From duck, goose, and grouse hunting to stiffer contests for deer, elk, moose, bear, and big African game—in one case, even a manhunt—all kinds of hunting and all possible outcomes, from the comic to the heartwarming, disastrous, or bizarre, are explored. Against the backdrop of ocean, frozen swamp, forest, or jungle, we see the deep bonds between father and son, huntsman and dog, man and nature being forged or shattered as the line between sport and survival blurs, and the hunter risks becoming prey to weather, to circumstance, or to human and animal foes.
Fishing's Best Short Stories
Fishing's Best Short Stories ›
Edited by Paul D. Staudohar

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Published Apr 2003

A handful of sinister characters and dark plots pepper this collection, but for the most part, these 25 tales portray fishermen as endearing folk, good humored and quick with a yarn, eager to help a novice, and famously prone to exaggerate. The scenery includes roiling oceans, still ponds, swift rivers, and bubbling brooks, and the fish themselves range from the noble trout to salmon, tarpon, bass, dolphin, permit, flounder, grouper, weakfish, northern pike, and even a sea monster. This collection includes three classic stories: the Grimm fairy tale “The Fisherman and His Wife,†first published in 1815; “A Fishing Excursion,†by the mid-19th-century French writer Guy de Maupassant; and Henry Van Dyke’s 1899 tale, “The Fatal Success.†The remaining stories span the 20th century and represent contemporary favorites such as Stephen King and E. Annie Proulx; early-century masters Stephen Vincent Benet and John Taintor Foote; and Philip Wylie, P. J. O'Rourke, Robert Traver, among others.
Football's Best Short Stories
Football's Best Short Stories ›
Edited by Paul D. Staudohar

Trade Paper

Published Aug 1999

In this lively anthology of 21 stories and one classic poem about football, fathers and sons tackle their issues, coaches and quarterbacks collide, and ordinary heroes emerge from the blitz.