New Book heads-up: The First Fall Classic

[Kawika]

Picked this book up at Barnes & Noble today. Haven't had a chance to start reading it but, gee, what a great cover.

[ethicsprof]

great pics, David.
looks like i'll be adding this one to my Christmas list quickly!!
many thanks,

best,
barry

[Kawika]

I'm about 50 pages into the book now and wish I were able to report that it is a great read but unfortunately so far it is not. The story of the 1912 season and the Giants-Red Sox October match-up definitely doesn't lack in intrinsic interest, and author Vaccaro fleshes the narrative with enough backstory and sidebar gossip to keep you reading. My main gripe is that his writing style is taking some getting used to. He has taken the liberty of manufacturing dialogue, in essence putting words in the mouths of McGraw and Stahl, Matty and Wood, etc, spoken according to how his research suggested they would speak. I'm not sure yet how well that is working here. A bigger gripe, maybe I am being picky, is his use of anachronistic prose, for example, "satisfy his baseball jones" and "the Cubs were (the Giants) personal Kryptonite". I am quite sure no one was jonesing for anything in 1912 and Superman wasn't even born yet. It's words like that take me out of the era when what I really want is to be immersed in those times. So don't rush out and buy it, at least give it a good once over in the book store before you fork over your 27 bucks. When I finish the book I will report back.

[PolarBear]

I was looking at this book on Amazon. Any updates after finishing it?

[Kawika]

I finished the book the other night. Whenever there's a thread about what game or era in baseball history one would like to time-travel back to, my answer is the 1912 World Series. There's something about the convergence of the Giants and the Red Sox, Joe Wood and Tris Speaker, Christy Mathewson and John McGraw, that gets my baseball heart fluttering. The cover alone was enough to sell me at the bookstore. The First Fall Classic wasn't quite as terrific as I wanted it to be but aside from a few complaints I would recommend it to anyone who wants an interesting read about this historic match-up.

As indicated in my previous post I was having some misgivings about the book once I started reading. The pretense of recreated dialogue worked well once I got used to it, and, fortunately, the author did not make too much of a habit of employing anachronistic jargon. I think he did a very good job of reconstructing the Series itself, not belaboring the reader with a pitch-by-pitch account but focusing on the critical points of each game and coloring in the periphery with dugout banter and matters like getting the games in before daylight expired and the antics of the Royal Rooters. He was also successful in evoking the mania that swept both cities, huge crowds gathering in public squares in Boston and New York watching mechanical scoreboards fed by telegraph updates. Where I think the author went wrong was trying to bring a concurrent murder trial and the 1912 Presidential election into his narrative in an attempt to create some sort of grand context as if the 1912 World Series wasn't big enough by itself. That part weakened the book, just got in the way. All things considered there's a lot I didn't know about the Series that I know now, Devore's bare-handed catch, O'Brien's hangover, the alleged Game 7 laydown, for instance, and I feel better acquainted with the likes of Harry Hooper and Red Murray and Nuf Ced McGreevey and Muggsy McGraw.

[sox1903wschamp]

Thanks for the report David. I am getting ready to dive into the book this weekend. We'll see how it goes.

[ethicsprof]

many thanks, David.
i must say, as an old academic, that you write quite well.
your review is helpful and makes me keep the book on my reading list but
dropped down 10 notches or so.

best,
barry

[tedzan]

On the same vain, have you read "The Year They Called Off The World Series", by Benton Stark ?

I highly recommend it, as it details the events in 1904 which culminated in McGraw (and company)
refusing to play the Boston (AL) team in the World Series.

This read is a must for you Red Sox fans, as you will realize it was really the "McGraw hex", and not
the "Ruth hex" that haunted Boston for exactly 100 years.


TED Z

[Myachelydra]

David,

Thanks for the review. The book was one of the gifts from my wife for Christmas along with a couple other baseball bios. I was saving it for last as I assumed it would be the best. Your description of the book sounds similar to the historical novels written by Sinclair (which I enjoy) but I personally like factual accounts when I am reading about old baseball. I am sure that I will enjoy it nonetheless; just not as much as I had hoped.