I have never been much of a sports fan. That said, I have always loved the connection between baseball and storytelling, the pastoral and the lyrical, athletics and poetics. Casey at the Bat, Shoeless Joe and Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, The Natural...

It just happened again...

Reading Paul Auster's 4 3 2 1. It is not about baseball, but a chapter describes a seven year old boy and his family's housekeeper watching the opening game of the 1954 World Series, between the Indians and the Dodgers. A game about which, unsurprisingly, I knew nothing.
But Auster's telling the story of Willy Mays and The Catch brought me to tears  Just gorgeous. Gorgeous in the game and gorgeous in the telling.

"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game -- and do so by watching some high school or small-town teams."
 - Jacques Barzun


Image result for The Catch willie mays

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