IAW&A member, author and distinguished columnist for the New York Times, Dan Barry has a new book coming out tomorrow (April 12, 2011) entitled Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game. The early press coverage and reviews have been simply off the charts. The following is a brief synopsis of the work:
On a cold Saturday night in April 1981, the night before Easter Sunday, two minor league teams gathered in a Depression-era ballpark in the hardscrabble mill city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, for what they thought would be just another ball game. But it wasn’t just another ballgame; it was an endless classic.
Now, nearly 30 years later to the day, Dan Barry revisits that holy night in his latest book, Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game – a meditation on small-town lives and minor league dreams that seamlessly moves back and forth in time, so that we come to know what happened to those held in that night’s unyielding grasp — from the players and managers to the batboy nicknamed “Panic,” and the clubhouse manager called “Hood.” Early reviews have celebrated the book as a masterpiece of baseball literature. “A fascinating, beautifully told story…” wrote Jon Thurber, the Book Review editor of the Los Angeles Times. “In the hands of Barry, a national correspondent for the New York Times, this marathon of duty, loyalty, misery and folly becomes a riveting narrative… The book feels like Our Town on the diamond.”
Coinciding with its release, a brand new website for the author has gone live this morning: www.danbarryonline.com. It features coverage of his latest book, as well as his previous titles, and links to his award-winning journalism for the New York Times.