Class A
Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
An unforgettable chronicle of a year of minor-league baseball in a small Iowa town that follows not only the travails of the players of the Clinton LumberKings but also the lives of their dedicated fans and of the town itself.
Award-winning essayist Lucas Mann delivers a powerful debut in his telling of the story of the 2010 season of the Clinton LumberKings. Along the Mississippi River, in a Depression-era stadium, young prospects from all over the world compete for a chance to move up through the baseball ranks to the major leagues. Their coaches, some of whom have spent nearly half a century in the game, watch from the dugout. In the bleachers, local fans call out from the same seats they’ve occupied year after year. And in the distance, smoke rises from the largest remaining factory in a town that once had more millionaires per capita than any other in America.
Mann turns his eye on the players, the coaches, the fans, the radio announcer, the town, and finally on himself, a young man raised on baseball, driven to know what still draws him to the stadium. His voice is as fresh and funny as it is poignant, illuminating both the small triumphs and the harsh realities of minor-league ball. Part sports story, part cultural exploration, part memoir, Class A is a moving and unique study of why we play, why we watch, and why we remember.
Customer Reviews
Swing and a miss
The author takes what could be an interesting subject for non-baseball fans and baseball fans alike, and makes it more mundane. While he shows potential to be a good writer he clearly lacks the ability to build enough rapport with the main players he encounters to uncover the true human interest aspects of the game. A few bright spots include snippets on the Latin American League some local color from actual games, however they are overshadowed by too many pages of corn and unions vs the town factory diatribes.