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Title: Slouching Toward Fargo: : A Two-Year Saga Of Sinners And St. Paul Saints At The Bottom Of The Bush Leagues With Bill Murray, Darryl Strawberry, Dakota Sadie And Me by Neal Karlen ISBN: 0-380-79215-X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 March, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.09 (33 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Book As Wild, Wacky And Wonderful As The Team It Covers
Comment: This is one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. Neal Karlen was a writer for Rolling Stone, sent to St. Paul, Minnesota to "get the dirt" on Bill Murray, iconoclastic actor and part owner of the St. Paul Saints. The Saints are a minor league baseball team, part of the independent Northern League, and operated by Mike Veeck, son of the legendary Hall of Famer Bill Veeck. (Casual baseball fans will most likely recall the senior Veeck for having sent midget Eddie Gaedel up to bat as a pinch hitter. It was only one of many colorful stunts by the games' most creative promoter ever).
Karlen sticks around for a couple of years; the story for Rolling Stone never materializes, but along the way this book emerges, as much about Karlen's crisis of spirit as it is about the Saints and the zany cast of characters surrounding them. But along the way we meet many of those who have given the Saints and the Northern League their unique cachet: on the field performers like former Mets slugger Darryl Strawberry, who temporarily redeems his life and career during a two-month stay with the Saints; former pitching star Jack Morris, seeking one more taste of glory, but on his terms only; Ila Borders, the first female to play in a professional game; and Wayne "Twig" Terwillliger, player and coach for 50 seasons and quiet representative of so much that's right with the game.
There are also wonderful portraits of Sister Rosalind. the nun who offers massages at games; a blind radio announcer convinced he's on his way to the big leagues; an employee of one of the Saints' rivals who earns the title "Most Beloved Woman in the Northern League" and others who find solace, healing and a chance to keep dreaming dreams in this strange, wacky, wonderful firmamenent. I really hated to come to the end of this one. The empty feeling was almost as bad as the night the World Series ends.
Rating: 5
Summary: Hilarious - Couldn't Put It Down!
Comment: I picked this up at my boyfriend's house, read the first few pages, and stayed home on the sofa for an entire weekend because I couldn't put this book down. I'm not a baseball fan, and not from the Midwest, but Karlen's hilarious and equally moving tale of his two years following around this team of wanna-bes, has-beens, and dreamers (some who "made it," some who didn't) had me chortling out loud and even getting teary-eyed at times. This is really a book about Karlen's own search not just for material for his Rolling Stone article (how this book began), but for his own soul as well. Karlen's writing is always entertaining, leaving you wanting more. I'm buying a bunch of these as late Christmas presents -- it's the best gift I can think of. Uplifting, thought-provoking, and one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. You'll never find characters like this in fiction -- what's amazing is they're all real. It should be a movie.
Rating: 5
Summary: Doesn't get more charming than this
Comment: Totally winning, both as a portrait of a team (and town) with heart and of a freelance writer who's struggling with the angel (good, real reporting) and devil (fat Rolling Stone paycheck) on his shoulders. The angel wins, and the reader can't help but cheer. Sex, strong women, kooky characters, fiercely loyal fans, minor-league silliness, bratwurst and the honest-to-God love of baseball, which weirdly enough persists no matter how disillusioning the world gets--this book's for anyone who likes Bull Durham, scrappy writers, or independence of spirit in any form. Ignore the minor editing errors; the book's worth it.
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Title: Small-Town Heroes: Images of Minor League Baseball by Hank Davis ISBN: 0803266391 Publisher: Bison Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Wild and Outside: How a Renegade Minor League Revived the Spirit of Baseball in America's Heartland by Stefan Fatsis ISBN: 0802774970 Publisher: Walker & Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Minor Players, Major Dreams by Brett H. Mandel ISBN: 080328232X Publisher: Bison Pub. Date: 01 July, 1997 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream by Jim Collins ISBN: 0738209015 Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: 16 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups : A Complete Guide to the Best, Worst, and Most Memorable Players to Ever Grace the Major Leagues by Rob Neyer ISBN: 0743241746 Publisher: Fireside Pub. Date: 02 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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