Advance praise: 

“When your team is slumping, when the scandalous headlines have got you down, or when winter seems like it will never end, Anatomy of Baseball will remind you why you fell in love with the game. This is one of the finest baseball anthologies of all time."

--Jonathan Eig, author of Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season and Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
 

“Exceptional—a lively, rewarding read.”

--Robert W. Creamer, Sports Illustrated writer and editor 

 

“Baseball’s most lasting gift may be its power to stir our curiosity, memory and imagination into such a rich and loving tribute.”

--Robert Lipsyte, author of The Contender 

 

“Twenty wonderful writers—that’s just enough for two full all-star teams—and two designated hitters.” 

--Christine Brennan, USA Today sports columnist 

 

“These charming essays on baseball themes range from topics like first gloves—mine was a Rawlings Marty Marion model—to the tragic story of the Billy Southworths, father and son, to being relegated to right field or having troubles playing first base. These are tasty morsels.”

--Fay Vincent, former commissioner of Major League Baseball

 

"The game of baseball, with its merciless injustices, its endless variations, and its hypnotic pace, has inspired more great literature than any other sport. Anatomy of Baseball is a wonderful example of this. The perennial All-Stars—Roger Angell, Frank Deford, George Plimpton--all deliver in the clutch, but it's the lesser-known players that leave you shaking your head in wonder....Baseball is only played a couple of hundred nights a year. Here's a book that will help you fill up the rest of your time.

--Seth Mnookin, author of Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top 

 

"Baseball can be many things to people, and its place in their lives evolves through the years. It’s a game to be played, a connection between generations, an icebreaker between strangers, and, most significantly, a memory link to childhood. These 20 essays—17 originals and 3 classics—explore the ways in which the game has impacted the authors’ lives....An outstanding collection to be treasured by fans of baseball and personal essays."

--Booklist

 

 

Stefan Fatsis sends his “stunningly perfect, consummately perfect, why-would-anyone-use-anything-else? perfect” glove to be restored by the Glove Designer at Rawlings; Susan Perabo considers retiring from her imaginary career in the majors and assesses the likelihood of women finding actual careers on the baseball field; Sean Wilentz imagines a Cooperstown Fans’ Hall of Fame, with its cowbells, frying pans, bedsheet banners, and more. And in one of the three previously published, now classic pieces in the collection, George Plimpton reflects on the slow demotion of aging or slumping players from pitcher to first base, to the outfield. United by the authors’ fervent love of the game, these essays remind us of the unique role baseball plays in our national history and collective imagination. 

 

A collaboration between SMU Press and the literary journal Creative Nonfiction. 

 

 

LEE GUTKIND is the founding editor of Creative Nonfiction and prize-winning author or editor of over a dozen books, including THE BEST SEAT IN BASEBALL...But You Have to Stand! The Game as Umpires See It. ANDREW BLAUNER is a literary agent in New York City and editor of COACH: 25 Writers Reflect on People Who Made a Difference. 

 

To purchase ANATOMY OF BASEBALL, please go to:

BOOK: &Anatomy Of Baseball (Sport in American Life) (Hardcover) by Yogi Berra (Foreword),,"