Tom Gresham/Independent/2022/169pp/IBSN: 9798787350937
When we encounter Donnie Wilson, the dream is already over. Once a major league prospect, an injury in the minors robbed him of his best years. The first chapter opens with Donnie up to bat for an unaffiliated baseball team out of St. Paul, where players are often sideshows to ballpark antics and cheap beer. He is in his late thirties now, reckoning with his age, and it is during this game–ultimately his last–that he decides he will pivot and return to his family. If he can no longer play, he will coach. Though what begins as a tale of second chances is soon thwarted. Donnie’s wife passes suddenly, his burgeoning coaching business is cannibalized by Stubs (a former Reds player and friend of Donnie’s), and his son, Max, has grown distant. Once a promising pitcher and companion to Donnie, Max now struggles to get a ball over the plate and opts to spend more time with his friend Lucas and Lucas’s family. Nothing comes easy in Donnie Baseball. Though if the book takes solace in anything, it’s the tenacity and the grit of its characters. Through trial and error, rinse and repeat, Donnie, Max, and this novel’s cast of endearing wash-ups trudge forward, fail, and learn. At the heart of Donnie Baseball, competition shines. In clashing with each other and finding joy in their games, these characters come to a better knowledge of themselves and each other. There is tremendous value in a fight–and perhaps more in good fun.
In all, Donnie Baseball is a charming read, thanks in large part to its setting and characters. Rather than the rows and stands of a city baseball diamond or the rural Iowa of Field of Dreams, this story takes place in suburban Richmond and gives its innocuous setting a textured sense of place. From chain restaurants to golf courses after dark, Gresham leaves few nooks unexplored, showing love for a suburbia often taken for granted. The characters, too, give life to this place and come to outshine our first impressions. Donnie, a failure, yet eager for greatness, becomes a patient mentor, more studious than he lets on. Max, who seems torn by choices–pitching or piano, his father or his mother’s memory–develops the strength to choose both. And from Otis and Ricky, two middling groundskeepers who command audiences with their bickering and annual triathlons, to Stubs, who outshines Donnie yet reveres him nonetheless, this novel’s ensemble makes for an intriguing cast. On and off the field, Donnie Baseball was a welcome surprise.
***
Reviewer Sam Fouts is a Cleveland-based writer and reluctant Browns fan. His work appears in BOOTH, Flash Fiction Magazine and elsewhere. Sam holds a B.A. in literature and creative writing from Miami University.
One Response
Very interesting, well-written review. Thanks to Sam Fouts for this. He makes me want to read the book – right away! – although I tend to be most interested in New York-based teams. I’ll follow SportScribe regularly now.