I don’t like baseball. I offer my thoughts on the game in an essay called “Opening Day Shutout.” I received an email from nonfiction editor Caleb Thompson on Thursday, March 31, regarding plans for The Monarch Review to run the piece.
The timing could not have been better. I was sitting in Estep Auditorium at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, on the opening evening of the 6th annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival. Susan Perabo was just about to read a short story. Perabo, I learned, views baseball rather differently than I do. Indeed, she described learning of a plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame that named her as the first woman to play NCAA baseball. A little over a week later, I read from Fighters & Writers as part of “The Sports Book” panel at the Arkansas Literary Festival. Bob Reising joined me. His book, Chasing Moonlight, is about – what else? – baseball.
Despite all the writerly affection for the sport, I remain baffled by its popularity.
