101 Books, Number 17

Favorite Books Throughout My Life

17: The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, 1986, by W. P. Kinsella (1935–2016)

Since boyhood I have always loved

A good old baseball tale.

I read a thousand of them then—

There were no more for sale!

And later on—an adult now—

I read some now and then—

And really liked those special ones

That dealt with Way Back When—

Or with a bit of fantasy,

Like Malamud and Roth.*

And Charyn** and some others—

Some novelty and froth.

And this one deals with baseball myth—

Because there is no clock

A game could reach infinity—

Which could be quite a shock.

This game goes on and on and on—

And I was mesmerized,

Admired Kinsella’s talent, which

To me seemed super-sized!

*Bernard Malamud, The Natural, 1952; Philip Roth, The Great American Novel, 1973

**Jerome Charyn, The Seventh Babe, 1979