For Love of the Game

Shutting out everything, concentrating on that one goal, time and time again. Why? All for the love of the game. This little gem of a book was found by the author's son and published posthumously. Though it is no Gettysburg, it is a wonderful book from an author who left us too early before we got a chance to know him. Billy Chapel is an aging major league baseball who once knew the pinnacle of greatness. But age has taken over, and he is on the verge of being put out to pasture--or as rumors roam--being traded. He is pitching his last game of the season, and as he pitches he ruminates over his life over a stream of conscienceless of thought. He knows it is the end of his career, but he is not going without a flash and begins to pitch the best game of his life. As he pitches, he begins to think back on his life, but as he does so he stays focus on the game--the perfect game. Why? For the love of the game. There are no simple answers to his life. Nothing but memories, the future, and the love of the game.A perfect little book from a great author.

Sports fiction is the sort of stuff that makes most literary buffs shudder with horror, much along the lines of romance novels and crime stories. However, Michael Shaara is able to tell a story that is more about one man's pride, doubts, and affections in the framework of nine perfect innings.

As a rule, I generally avoid contemporary books which focus on too narrow a subject (see Tom Clancy, Robin Cook) because I can't stand how the technical subject becomes the focus of the book instead of mere table dressing. In reading For Love of the Game, I was apprehensive because I'm no real fan of baseball. But, to my delight, the game is not "about" baseball. It's about a man, a success by any measure, struggling with what he has really accomplished and what he can look foward to after being told that he is no longer wanted by the team that he has loyally served for so many years. Shaara does a good job of melding several different memories into a coherent concious and the reader, in the end, gains not only perspective into the main character, Billy Chaple, but also into himself.

This book, published after the death of Pulitzer Prize winner Shaara, was not the final draft the author had in mind. What we have is a stream of thought and action story about getting old and yearning for the opportunities of our youth. Hemingway's Santiago was faced with 84 days without catching a fish. Shaara's pitcher is faced with the same type of problem and approaches it with the same intensity - all of his life has led to this moment. Shaara's message to the reader is that each moment is a culmination of our experiences and "growing up" is realizing that.

I read this novel for the first time two months ago. I am difficult to please, and I find most "serious" contemporary fiction mediocre or worse. "For Love of the Game" was outstanding in almost every respect, and reminded me of the joys of reading great fiction. There are many things that truly impressed me about this novel: the compact, but rich telling of the two stories in the book -- the aging ballplayer's last game and his breakup with his girlfriend of four years; the compelling descriptions of the ballplayer's inner thoughts as the game progresses; the riveting description of the final play of the game; and finally, the moving end to the story. This short novel is far more than a book for sports fans -- it is truly a work of art.