When it Rains, Try a Good Book or Two

On Wednesday, a couple of dozen baseball fans sat in the Davis Family Picnic Pavilion with the rain pounding noisily on the tin roof. A lost evening? Not for these folks.

These baseball addicts got to spend an extra hour with two authors who have elegantly captured the essence of the small town charm that makes Big Train baseball at Povich Field so special.

In 1995, Stefan Fatsis launched the genre of books describing the zany nature of life in the minor and summer college leagues with his Wild and Outside: How a Renegade Minor League Revived the Spirit of Baseball in America’s Heartland. This Spring, Will Bardenwerper tells the story of how Batavia, New York dealt with the loss of its MLB affiliated minor league team by reinventing its Muckdogs as a summer college team in Homestead: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America. Bardenwerper wrote not just a tale of a baseball season but a story of how a gritty community responds in the face of a raw deal.

There were lots of gibes by the authors at MLB’s action wiping out affiliated minor league baseball in 41 communities across the country in 2020, but the essence of their books published thirty years apart and their presentations Wednesday night is a positive story documenting the value of community that baseball has represented across the decades. Right at the entrance to Povich Field is a quote from historian Jacques Barzun: “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game — and do it by watching first some high school or small-town teams.” 

Bardenwerper brings the importance of community right up to the present and worries about our future: “These [MLB forced] closures would inevitably result in one fewer place for people to go to enjoy a sense of fraternity in an otherwise increasingly partisan, digitally connected world, a world accelerating toward physical and psychic isolation, seductive screens replacing lively bleachers.” His stories about a summer in the bleachers at Dwyer Stadium describe the “gathering together on a regular basis to cheer on the Muckdogs that made everyone’s life just a little bit better.”

These are terrific books that every Big Train fan will love.

Thanks to Wonderland Books, our favorite new bookstore in downtown Bethesda, for selling copies of Will’s book and to Stefan for donating copies of his book to everyone who bought Will’s book! Will signed a few extra books that you can find at Wonderland Books at 7920 Norfolk Avenue.

To join us for our second Big Train book talk on Wednesday July 2 from 6 to 6:30 p.m. when Matthew Jacob presents his new book Globetrotter: How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports, please email Bruce Adams at bruce@greaterwash.org.