Who would have thought...the CUBS and the INDIANS in the World Series! Today is game 3 of the series with it tied one game apiece. The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908 and the Indians haven't won since 1948. This great matchup made me want to read a baseball novel and what better than SHOELESS JOE, the basis of the movie "Field of Dreams" starring Kevin Costner. I saw Dreams when it first came out in 1989 but I didn't really remember much about it other than the Costner character building a baseball diamond in his cornfield in Iowa where a ghostly team of Chicago White Sox end up playing. I have recorded the movie on my DVR and will be watching it again soon to see how it compares to the book.
I've had the book on my shelf for several years, along with a few others by Kinsella, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. The main character, Ray Kinsella, does build a ball field outside his corn field on his Iowa farm because he heard a ballgame announcer tell him..."build it and he will come." And sure enough, once he is finished with left field, Shoeless Joe Jackson of the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox does appear and lets him know that the entire team will come when the ball field is complete. Then Ray hears the voice again advising him to seek out the Catcher in the Rye author, J.D. Salinger, and take him to a ballgame in Fenway Park. (In the movie, Salinger is changed to the fictional Terence Mann.) Salinger reluctantly agrees to go with him and winds up going back to Iowa to the ball field along with a young Moonlight Graham, who played only one inning for the New York Giants back in 1905.
The novel is full of baseball trivia including details about the early Chicago Cubs (who last won the World series in 1908) and their players. One of the characters in the story, Eddie Scissons, claimed to be the oldest living Chicago Cub. Overall, I really enjoyed this fantasy about the love of the game and would recommend it to any baseball fan.
I've had the book on my shelf for several years, along with a few others by Kinsella, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. The main character, Ray Kinsella, does build a ball field outside his corn field on his Iowa farm because he heard a ballgame announcer tell him..."build it and he will come." And sure enough, once he is finished with left field, Shoeless Joe Jackson of the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox does appear and lets him know that the entire team will come when the ball field is complete. Then Ray hears the voice again advising him to seek out the Catcher in the Rye author, J.D. Salinger, and take him to a ballgame in Fenway Park. (In the movie, Salinger is changed to the fictional Terence Mann.) Salinger reluctantly agrees to go with him and winds up going back to Iowa to the ball field along with a young Moonlight Graham, who played only one inning for the New York Giants back in 1905.
The novel is full of baseball trivia including details about the early Chicago Cubs (who last won the World series in 1908) and their players. One of the characters in the story, Eddie Scissons, claimed to be the oldest living Chicago Cub. Overall, I really enjoyed this fantasy about the love of the game and would recommend it to any baseball fan.
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