My Favorite Sports Book: The Great American Novel

I am an avid sports fan. I have been one since I was in the third grade or so. At that time, I surprised people by my love of sports, as it was still a time when the job of being a sports fan was primarily undertaken by men.

Moving from a small town just outside of Indianapolis to Bloomington, Indiana - home of the Indiana Hoosiers - solidified my love of sports. At ten years of age, I was exposed to college basketball and - with Bobby Knight's appointment as the head coach of Hoosiers happening at the same time - I was more than hooked.

All that said, one might suspect that my favorite sports book of all time is A Season on the Brink, a brilliant, fascinating work by John Feinstein. Actually A Season on the Brink is my runner up. My favorite sports book of all time is a work of fiction: The Great American Novel, by Philip Roth.

To explain why it holds such a spot in my heart we need to travel back in time a bit. While developing my love of sports in those early years in Bloomington, I was also gaining an interest in journalism. I read newspapers from cover to cover. My favorite section was, naturally, the sports section. The writing on those pages had more life to them than any other and my local sportswriters kept me on the edge of my seat. I couldn't get enough of them!

I was also a voracious reader of novels. Whenever I needed a book to read, I would ask my mother and she would pull something from her vast collection. She had me reading John Updike when I was 13 or 14 years old. And once when I had a book report to write, she gave me The Great American Novel by Philip Roth. Her choice was calculated, a huge sports novel, written by an award-winning author - she gave me the best book that combined my love of language with my love of sports.

By this time, I was an aspiring sportswriter. There were some sports that I knew well enough, but I still needed to learn more. I knew to be a sportswriter one had to be well versed in rules, statistics, strategies and the like. I knew the basics of baseball, but didn't have great knowledge of the sport. The lore of baseball alone is enough to make one dizzy!

Reading The Great American Novel was a true delight. Roth is an extraordinary writer. As this was my first Roth novel, I remember reading it carefully. I had to, for one, because I was going to write a book report about it. But I also read it carefully because I wanted to learn about baseball. This is not a book that will teach you all the ins and outs of baseball, but it's a great start! He definitely provides enough information on the art of baseball. But what he also did with this novel was to give you a romping ride with a crazy group of players. They are some of the funniest characters I have ever met!

Based on a baseball team from the Patriot League, the Rupert Mundys, Roth introduces us to players who are not all that sympathetic, but they fun to follow. The Mundys are forced to play all their games on the road while its home stadium is used as an embarkation point for soldiers headed to the war, Having a talent shortage throughout the league (also because of the war), the Mundys include a drunken first baseman, a 14 year old second baseman, a 50 year old third baseman, a one legged catcher, a one armed right field and two midget relievers. You can just imagine having a line up like that alone provides enough material for a comic masterpiece.

And that is precisely what The Great American Novel is - a comic masterpiece. If you're a baseball fan, this book is a must read. If you're not a baseball fan, but you truly appreciate great satiric writing, again, it's a must read.