Sunday, September 26, 2010

Who Knew A Case of Blue Balls Could Pay Off So Well?

Charles McGrath has an appreciation of John Updike's classic essay on Ted Williams, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of that piece. It is quite good. I think you should read it even if you do not like baseball.

'Ted Williams crossing home plate after hitting a homer in his last at-bat.'


Loved this line:

It seems obvious now, but Updike was one of the first to show that you don’t have to write down about sports or empurple them, either.

(h/t: KK, via email | post title: will become apparent upon reading McGrath)

[Added] If you've never read Updike's essay, here's the version as it originally ran in the New Yorker.

2 comments:

TC said...

Excellent. Is this the same guy who wriote the bad novels?

bjkeefe said...

Heh, you mean Updike?

I don't know his canon very well, but I will say that I couldn't get through the first Rabbit book, that's for sure. I think I've read other things by him that I've liked, though. Hugging the Shore was good (albeit not one of his novels).

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