Stories from the Ballpark

From The New Yorker’s archive: a selection of stories about baseball. View in browser | Update your preferences Stories from the Ballpark One of the small mercies of our pandemic year has been the resumption of baseball: crowdless, silent, but baseball all the same. This week, perhaps to make up for being kept away from the stadium, we’re bringing you a selection of great baseball pieces from our archive. On September 28, 1960, the last day of his career, Ted Williams stepped up to the plate and hit a home run. He descended into the dugout and never returned to the field, not even to tip his cap. John Updike was sitting in the stands that day at Fenway Park and soon wrote “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” his valedictory to the great Red Sox hitter and outfielder. In “Distance,” Roger Angell, the greatest of all baseball writers and an honoree of the Hall of Fame, profiles Bob Gibson, the pitching master of the St. Louis Cardinals. In “Baseball’s Bumpy Return and the Gap Between Hope and Hubris,” Louisa Thomas describes the difficulties inherent in commencing a new baseball season during an epidemic. In “How Baseball Players Become Celebrities,” Louis Menand examines how Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig helped to reinvent our notion of star athletes. Finally, in “The Professor of Baseball,” Ben McGrath reports on the statistician Bill James, the brains behind the “moneyball” approach to the game. Here’s to seeing you at the ballpark sometime soon. — David Remnick From The New Yorker’s Archive Our Far-Flung Correspondents Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu Ted Williams’s last game at Fenway Park. By John Updike | October 22, 1960 The Sporting Scene Distance The game belongs to Bob Gibson. By Roger Angell | September 22, 1980 The Sporting Scene Baseball’s Bumpy Return and the Gap Between Hope and Hubris The season’s opening weekend felt almost ordinary, which was extraordinary. Then more players started testing positive for the coronavirus. By Louisa Thomas | August 1, 2020 A Critic at Large How Baseball Players Became Celebrities Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth transformed America’s pastime by becoming a new kind of star. By Louis Menand | June 1, 2020 The Sporting Scene The Professor of Baseball Can the master of statistics help the Red Sox beat the Yankees? By Ben McGrath | July 14, 2003 This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.