O P I N I O N
NOT THAT PROFOUND
By Nathan Graziano
At precisely this point of every year, somewhere around the Ides of March, I launch into the same sentimental, navel-gazing screed about baseball and the symbolic significance of the game, about hope and rebirth and poetry.
For the sake of everyone involved, I’m going to forego my screed this season1.
Let’s face it: It was a long, snowy winter, and if I never have to lift another snow shovel as long as I live, it will not be long enough.
But now it is time to get primed for baseball season. With Opening Day for the Red Sox less than two weeks away (March 26 in Cincinnati), and the World Baseball Classic winding down, I’m starting to call up the mental image of my “happy place”: At a baseball game, a matinee, on a warm, breezy summer day with with my scorecard on my lap and a cold beer in my hand.
I also recently interviewed Fisher Cats General Manager Taylor Fisher about some of the cool things the team has in store for the fans in Manchester this season, and I’m chomping at the bit for The Cats to begin on April 3 as well.
However, one cannot simply dive head-first into baseball season, like plunging into cold water. Baseball season requires a certain amount of mental preparation, a spring training for the mind and intellect that helps me ease into the proper headspace for the long season.
So here is the syllabus of required texts that I’ve written—feel free to use it as well—to prime myself for baseball season.
Films:
- “Bull Durham”: This 1988 cinema classic is, in my opinion, the ultimate baseball film. I ranked my favorites in a 2021 column, and the story of this fictional Single-A baseball team in the Carolina League2 lands on the top of the list. Every March, I make a ceremony out of viewing “Bull Durham,” and it never gets old.
- “Four Days in October”: If you ever want to see me cry like a six-year-old girl whose puppy just ran away, put on this ESPN 30/30 classic. “Four Days in October” starts with Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS and Dave Roberts’ stolen base, and finishes with the greatest comeback story in professional sports history—and also the biggest gag-job, painted in pinstripes. For me, this documentary works better than Zoloft when it comes to fixing my moods, and it reminds of the magic inherent in the game.
- “Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns”: This is a seminal text for every baseball fan. In order to truly appreciate the game, you need to know its history3, and few filmmakers teach history better than the venerable Ken Burns. Obviously, if you have a job, it will be a chore to watch the whole 18-hour series in less than two weeks, but it’s not impossible.
Books:
- “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella: Undoubtedly, the film adaptation of the novel, “Field of Dreams,” is a great movie in its own right—also cracking my list. But nothing, for me, beats the book, which is an inspirational existential journey, as well as a clinic in magic realism.
- “Summer of ‘49” by David Halberstam: Red Sox fans, read this book before you watch “Four Days in October” so everything works out in the end—albeit 55 years later. This book chronicles the 1949 pennant race, which came down to the final game of the season between the Red Sox and Yankees at Fenway Park. Halberstam was one of the greatest journalists and writers of his time—or any time, really—and this book gives you a real human peek inside the players and the game itself during one of those bygone eras that will leave you feeling nostalgic and ready to go to the ballpark.
- “Ball Four” by Jim Bouton: Yes, Bouton pitched for the Yankees. I know. But long before there was social media, Bouton wrote this behind-the-scenes tell-all that pretty much had him ostracized by the rest of the players in the major leagues. It’s not always pretty or flattering to read about what the players were doing outside of the diamond, but it’s damn interesting.
- However, I reserve the right to navel-gaze again next March. ↩︎
- I will frequently comment on my wife’s outfits with the line: “You think this is a little excessive for the Carolina League?” ↩︎
- This lesson is universal. ↩︎
You can reach Nate at ngrazio5@yahoo.com.