Tony
Ardizzone's 'art...
in his widely acclaimed novel, Heart of the Order
resonates for us, with "Subway Series 2000" for all of the romance that goes
with baseball. If you enjoyed Heaven Can Wait, you'll love this novel. Ignore the fact
it's out-of-print and let Amazon shag it for you. 
Don't go by us-- see what Sports Illustrated,
USA Today and the Virginian-Pilot said. Don't accuse us of bias,
just because two characters are named Leon Chance and Tommy Puma.
We can't help we were around when Tony was tooling Heart with our colorful, if
not comically-beyootiful names. Or that graduate school was a privilige under Tony's
outstanding tutelage because Tony is revered by many for his no-nonsense
approach to sharing his fiction crafts. He is still conspicuous by his absence, annually during
the ODU Literary
Festival.
Kudos also to Billy Crystal in the 2001 season for
bringing us the extraordinary HBO televised production of 
61*, a film touted as the greatest baseball film
ever, and in our viewing, lives up to it: "The year was 1961. Baseball legend Babe
Ruth's incredible 60 homer record was under attack. New York Yankee teammates, Roger Maris
and Mickey Mantle, were the challengers." Let's just say it was one painless and
thoroughly engrossing was to get some baseball history, including Mark McGuire footage.
You'll get many insights to the relevance of baseball records and why the 1961 season is
still so controversial.
Also worthy, is Doris Kearns Goodwin's memoir Wait Till
Next Year, which speaks to her neighborhood, "equally divided among Dodger,
Giant and Yankee fans" in the 50's. An era when one of the three New York teams
went to the series every year. She's the Pulitzer-winning author of No Ordinary Time
and bestsellers, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys and Lyndon Johnson and the
American Dream; seen often on Today, Nightline and heard frequently
phoning phony, Imus-- in the Morning (you gotta' tune in for her, and the likes
of JFK Jr.-- how does Dungy Don doo-it?). Incidently, the book is worthy alone, for
extraordinary AP/World Wide Photos of the '49 Dodgers, Campanella, Hodges, Robinson,
Reese, Cox, Ford, Newcombe, Berra, and more. What Next Year exhibits best,
is how baseball ties father and daughter so closely through ritual. And that's the
poetry and romance of Baseball. Yes, the ritual of baseball.
Further, Bravo aired "Eight Men Out" on it's Five Star
Cinema, a film taken from Eliot
Asinof's book, directed by John Sayles: about the 1919 infamous "Black
Sox"-- with John Cusack,
D.B Sweeney, director-Perry Lang, Jace Alexander, Christopher Lloyd, Studs Terkel, John Mahoney, Gordon Clapp and
more. What's remarkable about Eight, is that despite the extraordinary Matewan
director's guidance, the exceptional cast performances and the incredibly intriguing story
of the Chicago White Sox throwing the World Series, effectively ending the career of "Shoeless 'Say it
ain't so, Joe' Jackson" (inhaling) tell us why we kept looking at the clock
during this 121 minute picture show? It's one of those inexplicable dealies, enough
to make ya' wanna' watch it again to see why, since all the ingredients are there.
And nevermind you just missed Tommy
Lee Jones' engrossing portrayal in Cobb.
If you're seriously series-spirited, (don't have to say it with
candy, a plug or Dubble-Bubble wad) you may instead wanna' go-ta' bat with Subway Series,
Major League Baseball, Yogi Berra, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Cooperstown, Joe DiMaggio,
Jackie Robinson,et al.
At the risk of revealing our team: Yankees!
©2010 R K Puma ro@rkpuma.com
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