Hoose, Phillip. (2006). Perfect, Once Removed: When Baseball Was All The World To Me. New York: Walker and Company. 163 pages. ISBN
9780802715371.
Awards/Selection Lists:
Brief Summary: As a child in the mid 1950's, the author found himself as the new kid in Speedway, Indiana, sticking out like a sore thumb but desperately wanting his peer's acceptance. The ticket to school yard success? Baseball. He struggles to learn the game with any proficiency and at the same time ,comes to realize how baseball has shaped his life and his connections to friends, family and teachers, especially after he finds out that he has a cousin in the major leagues.
Personal Reaction: Anyone who has ever been the new kid in town and desperately wanted to fit in can relate to this book and Phillip Hoose's reactions as an 8 year child, feeling awkward and aone. Also, anyone who enjoys the golden-age of baseball, the history behind it and the national fervor, the way it brought people together, will also relate to this book. It's a great melding of two topics, seamlessly done.
As a child, I became interested in baseball as a way to connect to my father after my parents split, and my sister left for college. My favorite team, the New York Yankees, is coincidentally the same team that Hoose's cousin, the legendary pitcher, Don Larsen, played for. My love for the Yankees, in a sea of Seattle Mariner's fans (which is tantamount to social suicide in some circles) was due to the tradition of the Yankees, their connection to history, to legendary figures, to the golden-age of baseball, where a sport could unite an entire nation in joy, becoming the "national past-time." I loved to imagine myself in the 1940's or 50's in the grandstands of the classic stadiums, eating peanuts and cheering for my favorite players, where they seemed like gods and men at the same time, instead of the unreachable stars of the game today. That's where I found myself again, reading Hoose's memoir. Not only could I relate to this poor kid trying to find someway of fitting in with other children and feeling like an outsider (I moved around a lot and went to 6 elementary schools), but I got caught up in his excitement and the connection, passion and pride that baseball and his quest brought as time progressed, in an age of innocence.
Rest assured, while there are many references to baseball and history, it's still an interesting read, but I will admit that in the last chapters, the play by play description of the fateful 1956 World Series no-hitter rather lost my attention, much the way Charles Dickens' descriptions can. However, Hoose's excitement was clearly palpable and the family connection and pride that he saw built and sustained over decades in his family, and what he inspired himself, clearly show that some passions built early never die.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and reading about another child's ability to find baseball as a type of personal salvation and family camaraderie, and the continued meaning it has as an adult.
Front and Back Matter: Copyright, Title Page, Book Titles, Dedication, Note to Reader, Chronological Memoir of Author's introduction and love affair with baseball, and his connection to legendary NY Yankees pitcher Don Larsen, Epilogue, Acknowledgments, About the Author.
Content Evaluation: Very well written and personable, Hoose has a good flow and excellent use of the written word. My only complaint would be that he clearly states in the Note to Reader, that "much of the dialogue....is re-created because I am not able to remember the exact words of family, friends and acquaintances of fifty years ago. It is however entirely accurate as to what was said and how it was said." Now I completely understand not being able to recall conversations from 50 years ago word for word. I can barely do so with conversations 5 days ago. However, this note bothers me, I think because he states that it is still entirely accurate as to how and what was said. While I'm sure the feeling is the same, how does he know it's accurate if he can't recall the exact wording? Wouldn't it have been better to have just mentioned that perhaps conversations were para-phrased, thereby lessening the questionability of the factual nature of this non-fiction? Then again, it is an autobiography of sorts, and much more questionable ones have been fashioned. While his phrasing bothers me in this "Note", I have no doubt that the intent of the conversations is very much, as it was, 50 years ago.
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