A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti

by Kenneth S. Robson and A. Bartlett Giamatti

Book Overview

With a foreword by David Halberstam. He spoke out against player trading. He banned Pete Rose from baseball for gambling. He even asked sports fans to clean up their acts. Bart Giamatti was baseball's Renaissance man and its commissioner. In A GREAT AND GLORIOUS GAME, a collection of spirited, incisive essays, Giamatti reflects on the meaning of the game. Baseball, for him, was a metaphor for life. He artfully argues that baseball is much more than...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565121929
• ISBN13: 9781565121928
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Baseball as Poetry

Only Bart Giamatti could have pulled off this book. The eloquence of the game is matched by the eloquence of his prose. To fully know the tribulations of MLB play requires a lifetime of study and reflection. The words expressed here are entirely at that level of precision and perfection. This small volume makes a perfect gift for anyone who loves the game of baseball, and especially professional baseball.

A very passionate man

Throughout this book Giamatti is referred to as an idealist by others and at least once by himself. There is not a more accurate description of his writings contained in "A Great and Glorious Game." What seperated Giamatti from others of like mind was his ability to act upon his impulses. Most famously, banishing Pete Rose from ever being associated with baseball again. An incredible unfortunate situation, but to all those who cannot accept Giamatti's judgment please read this book. For myself it clarified his motives and subsequent actions. Beyond anything to do with Rose, this book is thoroughly engaging. Giamatti deftly exemplifies why many of us continually return to baseball every spring. Recommended for any baseball fan.

Not for ( )

Giamatti's short tenure restored dignity and eloquence to the game. By stopping corruption in it's tracks he brought his level-headed love of the game to it's most powerful position. A man of letters and the arts, he reinvented the position he took over, most recently held by spin-doctors and PR men. It's nothing short of tragic that the game he loved undoubtedly contributed to his untimely end. For those who worship Pete Rose: Giamatti did what any true fan of baseball would do. Punished the most heinous crime possible against the game of baseball. Had Rose never played the game, it would still be the greatest game ever. Had he gone unpunished, it would currently rank somewhere between Professional Wrestling and Arena Football in the eyes of the public today.

An eloquent, erudite, and decent man

The collected writings of Bart Giamatti demonstrate the depth of appreciation he had toward our game. The first paragraph of "Green Fields of the Mind" alone should be the centerpiece for the canon of sports literature. His high esteem for all that is right in sports is further evinced in his courageous moral stand against Pete Rose. Perhaps all the Pete Rose people would be well-served by reading this book. They would gain an exponentially greater appreciation for the wonder of baseball and afford themselves the opportunity to reflect on why Mr. Rose does not deserve a place in its shrine. The only shame involving Giamatti is that he did not live long enough to eloquently and courageously defend his side of the sordid Rose affair, while Pete is able to hawk memorabilia, bleat self-righteously about his case, and sell his name to anyone with a fistful of cash and an agenda. However, while it is tragic that Giamatti passed on too soon, we are lucky to have his writings to further stoke our interest in the great game, and to remind ourselves that some things are still worth fighting for.

Finally, Thankfully

I read the essay "Green Fields of the Mind" in 1990 and have waited for a collection of Giamatti's work ever since. I know no other writer who so eloquently captures not only the magic of baseball, but how we experience it. I wish I could be half as passionate about my life as Giamatti was about the game we love. Buy the book and count how many times you tell yourself during its reading that you either need to lend it to a friend or buy a copy for someone you love. It transcends baseball without the obvious pretentions of academia. Should be read just before opening day, again on the day your favorite team is eliminated for the season and once more during the off-season.

A man of letters writes eloquently about the game he loved.

May I humbly suggest that if you love baseball as Bart Giamatti loved baseball, that you read this book. A master of language, who loved this game as I love this game, put his genius to work to create this idyllic tome.