Book Review: The Fade-Away by George Jansen

I'll begin this review, of "The Fade-Away" by George Jansen (Pocol Press, 2007), with a few caveats. I read a lot of baseball books, and have reviewed a good number of them on this site. This review is different for several reasons. It is not my usual fare, as while I read a lot of books about baseball, I don't read many that are fictional. In fact, the last I can remember reading were "Shoeless Joe" and "The Iowa Baseball Confederacy", both by W.P. Kinsella. I read these books in middle school, so you can see that baseball fiction is certainly not my usual fare.

The other thing that makes this review different is that it is my first solicited review. Mr. Jansen, a fellow SABR member and fan of both the great game of baseball and barbeque, was kind enough to send me an advance copy of the book for review. Of course, this in no way effects what I have to say about the book. If I didn't like it, I'd either state that in this review or more likely than not, passed on reviewing it (mom always said that if you can't say something nice, etc, etc). So, without further ado...

"The Fade-Away", by George Jansen is a book about baseball. Well, that's not really giving it a proper description. It's a book about the small town of Port Newton in the San Francisco Bay area at the turn of the 20^th century that is fighting to regain its former glory in the new century. As the modern era dawns, philosophers are opining that "God is dead", there is a war in the Philippians, and people everywhere are struggling to find their place in a world that suddenly changes faster than it used to. Baseball runs throughout this story, as the local team minors the town itself as it struggles to face many of the issues of the day (or any day). Racism, love, greed, morality, and the unstoppable push of progress tug at the small town and its citizens and ballplayers.

As the story begins, the townspeople fish a tall American Indian dressed in a tuxedo out of the strait. This player turns out to be "Chief Dobbs", a former professional ballplayer. Dobbs, while quite washed up and obviously down on his luck, still can throw his trademark breaking pitch, the "fade away" until his elbow starts throbbing. This is a town amateur team, much like those seen all over America at the turn of the century. The team, much like the town, has seen better days, and in an attempt to recapture the glory days of old, Dobbs is signed up to pitch for the team, despite the fact that a few rules have to be bent or ignored to get him on the team.

The team starts winning, but they have started down a slippery moral slope. The use of ringers, while leading to more wins, sends several local regulars to the bench. As the team wins more, greed leads to admission being charged for the games, and then for beer to be sold in the stands. Also, Dobbs, while a former professional, has to rely more on dirty tricks to win these days. As the promise of more wins (and more bets on the home team won) looms, more ringers are recruited, sending more locals to the bench.

I found the way the author chooses to present the story to be interesting. Instead of a straight narrative, each chapter is given to us from the "point of view" of one of four different "characters". Sam Fuller, the middle aged town doctor, who is also the president of the town athletic club gives us his first person view of the happenings of the team and town, plus much of what we know about the town's history. His daughter, Sophie, is a high school senior who gives us much of the social happenings and gossip of the town through entries in her diary. Stories from the local newspaper, the "Port Newton News", give us write-ups for major town events, including baseball games, as well as providing some great local flavor with their "local brevities". Calvin Elwell, a bartender and the second baseman on the town team, also offers his insights. Calvin is the future husband of Sophie, although at the time of the story, neither knows this. Unlike the other three, Calvin's commentary comes as recollections of the events much later on, giving them a different feel and the advantage of hindsight.

While one might think that jumping from perspective to perspective and from present to past tense may cause the story to come across in a disjointed manner, Mr. Jansen does a good job of keeping the story clear and moving along at a nice pace. While there is a lot going on here, it doesn't ever feel like we're being rushed or fed too much information. The story is allowed to unfold in a very natural way that made for an enjoyable read.

One thing I enjoyed about the book is that it dealt with many different themes (love, greed, racism, progress) without ever getting preachy and without feeling the need to wrap up every lose end. While it deals with some important moral questions, this is no fairy tale. The moral ambiguity of the time period and the imperfection of the characters come through, and make the story seem much more real.

I would recommend "The Fade-Away" to readers who enjoy baseball, history, and who is looking for a fairly easy read (a quick 230 pages) that still manages to have some substance without forcing itself on you. If you enjoy historical fiction and are a baseball fan, this book would be a particularly good fit for you.