It's playoff season. And not just that, the Yankees are playing deep into it. To honor the game I was thinking I'd find the best baseball quotes, the ones that most uniquely capture why it's such a damn good game, and I'd post them on this here blog. I started to gather a few very good ones, but then decided to change course.
Last December, I read a book called Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker, a novelist and a pacifist. The book is essentially a collection of vignettes about the lead up to and the early days of the Second World War. It paints a dark picture of not only the Axis Powers, but also of the intentions and actions of the Allies. War is hell, basically, no matter what side you're on. Very powerful book and its overall thesis is up for debate. If you read it, let me know. We'll get a drink.
Anyway, the reason I'm bringing up the book is because in it is a short little story, set in a German prison camp, I think captures an aspect of why baseball is such a wonderful game.
A guard unlocked a metal door on Howard Schoenfeld's cell block. One of the solitary confinees, Donald Benedict, was a very good pitcher; Warden Gerlach needed him for a crucial prison league softball game. Benedict said he wouldn't play unless everyone in solitary confinement - not just him and not just the pacificists but everyone - was released.
Warden Gerlach pondered for an hour then ordered everyone's release from solitary. Benedict pitched a no-hitter. The prison erupted in celebration. "It was a mass catharsis of human misery," Schoenfeld wrote. "Some of the men were weeping, others were laughing like madmen. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, and nothing I expect to see again."
Go Yankees.
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