The Roger Angell Baseball Collection

RetailA captivating collection of three nonfiction baseball books by acclaimed writer Roger Angell: The Summer Game, Five Seasons, and *Season Ticket*The Summer Game*, originally published in 1972, is a stunning collection of Angell’s essays on the major leagues, covering a span of ten seasons. Angell brilliantly captures the nation’s most beloved sport through the 1960s, spanning both the winning teams and the “horrendous losers,” and including famed players Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays, and more. With the panache of a seasoned sportswriter and the energy of an avid baseball fan, Angell’s sports journalism is an insightful and compelling look at the great American pastime.In Five Seasons, New Yorker sportswriter Roger Angell calls 1972 to 1976 “the most important half-decade in the history of the game.” The early to mid-1970s brought unprecedented changes to America’s ancient pastime: astounding performances by Nolan Ryan and Hank Aaron; the intensity of the “best-ever” 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox; the changes growing from bitter and extended labor strikes and lockouts; and the vast new influence of network television on the game. Angell, always a fan as well as a writer, casts a knowing but noncynical eye on these events, offering a fresh perspective to baseball’s continuing appeal during this brilliant and transformative era.And in Season Ticket, Roger Angell once again journeys through five seasons of America’s national pastime—chronicling the larger-than-life narratives and on-field intricacies of baseball from 1982 to 1987. Angell’s collected New Yorker essays, written in his unique voice as a fan and baseball aficionado, cover the development of the game both on the diamond and off. While diving into subjects such as Sparky Anderson’s ’84 Detroit Tigers, the legendary 1986 World Series and the Curse of the Bambino, and the increasingly pervasive issue of player drug use, Angell reveals the craft and technique of the game, and the unforgettable stories of those who played it.Review“Roger Angell is the clear-eyed poet laureate of baseball. His books are like long, wonderful strings of base hits by the home team.” —New York Post“Angell . . . comes from the magazine writer’s school of sportswriting: calm, meditative, not deadline driven or space cramped, free to follow the fast-and-slow, squeeze-and-relax rhythms of the game.” —Time “Roger Angell is a stunning writer. . . . A writer who can translate the nuances of the game with perfect clarity.” —The Wall Street JournalAbout the AuthorRoger Angell (b. 1920) is a celebrated New Yorker writer and editor. First published in the magazine in 1944, he became a fiction editor and regular contributor in 1956; and remains as a senior editor and staff writer. In addition to seven classic books on baseball, which include The Summer Game (1972), Five Seasons (1977), and Season Ticket (1988), he has written works of fiction, humor, and a memoir, Let Me Finish (2006). He edited the short story collection Nothing But You: Love Stories from The New Yorker (1997). In 2011, he was awarded the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing. Angell lives in New York City.