A humorous and colorful account of the fateful day that Casey stepped up to bat and struck-out to unprecedented disappointment combines real and fictional characters to vividy convey the ups and downs of late-nineteenth-century life and baseball
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From Publishers Weekly:
Deford ( Everybody's All-American ) uses Ernest Thayer's classic poem "Casey at the Bat" to create a whimsical tale blending fact, fiction and fantasy. Timothy Casey is a brilliant young "ballist" (as they were called back in 1888) whose extraordinary hitting has galvanized the town of Mudville. Living near Boston, Casey falls in love with beautiful Florence Cleary, a recent Irish immigrant working as a maid. "Mighty Casey" also meets Chester Drinkwater, an unscrupulous businessman who lies to the young ballplayer and for a price convinces him to leave the Mudville Nine. After splitting with Flossie over Drinkwater, Casey encounters Richard Fox, the editor of the National Police Gazette , who's in Boston to convince the great John L. Sullivan to defend his boxing crown. Casey's altercation with the drunk and overweight champion is the next event in this cleverly extended what-if, tracing fictitious events that lead up to the actual at-bat immortalized by the Thayer poem. Deford writes lovingly of a time long past and his set-up of the famous at-bat is nicely conceived. A shorter version this book appeared originally in Sports Illustrated , and the novel does read like a magazine piece stretched (beyond its modest limits) between the covers of a book. Photos not seen by PW. 25,000 first printing; $25,000 ad/ promo.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherViking Press
- Publication date1989
- ISBN 10 0670827800
- ISBN 13 9780670827800
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages128
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Rating