Game Time: A Baseball Compendium was written in 1998 by Roger Angell probably in New York. This was one of Angel’s last books. It is written in his usual concise and cogent style. It’s well-written and its teachings may apply to more than baseball fans. It is binned by the three seasons of baseball, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Because it is spring, here we will pull out a chapter on spring. The book is long at 398 pages long. Will you read a book by Roger Angell?
In the Springtime
One of the endearing things about Game Time: A Baseball Compendium is that there are chapters that are labeled, “takes,” that represent Angell’s opinion or are a story told by him. This is an interesting fact, and there are 9 such chapters out of 31 in the book. One in Spring is entitled, ‘The Watz of the Geezers.’ It is the fourth chapter in the book.
‘Waltz of the Geezers’ is the story of a chance springtime meeting between Angell and Bill Ringney, a former manager and infielder for the San Francisco Giants. Angel makes two important points at the outset of this chapter. First, that spring represents a new beginning. It is the beginning of a new season and every team thinks they can win the World Series. The second point made by Angell is that spring is baseball’s social season when longtime friends who have not seen each other in a while have a chance to catch up.
Angell ran into Ringney, his friend of about ten years, in the stands at a baseball game. There is not much to do when the fifteenth-ranked prospect is playing first base. The first story is about an ending from a player you probably have heard of – Lew Burdette, Rigney was the manager. Burdette was at the end of his career and pitching for Rigney’s team (the California Angels), in Minnesota against the Twins.
He threw a fastball and Killibrew hit a home run, the furthest one ever for the Twins. It hit a seat in the last row of the upper deck they painted gold. Burdette was released after the season.
This is an example of the kind of folksy story Angell tells. Immediately thereafter Ringney introduces him to a player most have not heard about, Geoge Zurverink. Zurverink played for Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, and Baltimore Orioles in a forgettable eight-year career. They all talk for innings and the ballplayers tell odd stories about baseball in the 1950s.
The Purist
Yogi Berra and Joe Torre were noted baseball purists. So were rivals Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. Angell was friends with Ted Williams and tells of an odd exchange he had with Williams in Winter Haven, Florida in 1985. They had become friends about 25 years before when they realized they both hand sons named John Henry. They sat in the bleachers in right field during a spring training game in 1985. Angell knew a lot of former baseball players. Game Time: A Baseball Compendium is filled with the types of stories.
Game Time: A Baseball Compendium’s Verdict
Roger Angell’s Game Time: A Baseball Compendium knew many former players and brought the readers into stories and conversations with those players, be they Ted Williams or Geoge Zurverink. It is a pleasure to read books written by him. Just one example of these great books that are filled with wonderful stories. Baseball fans we love them, and ever non-fans will benefit from reading Game Time: A Baseball Compendium.
