A Walk in the Woods

“When I grew up, it was the game,” hesaid. “Every kid had a glove.” He spent hisearly years playing pickup games in NewYork’s Central Park and later captainedboth his high school team on Long Islandand the Swarthmore squad. At Swarthmore(where he transferred after a year atWilliams), he encountered George Earnshaw,former Philadelphia Athletics starpitcher, then fire chief in the Ville.“In his fading years as a ballplayer,”said Asinof, “George threw half-speed battingpractice for the College team to keephis arm in shape, and on Sundays he wentup to New York to pitch for the BrooklynBushwicks for $200 a week. This is a guywho had pitched to Ruth and Gehrig, and IONLY THREE OF ELIOT ASINOF’S (LEFT)14 BOOKS ARE ABOUT BASEBALL, BUT THESPORT PLAYED A CENTRAL ROLE IN HISYOUTH. AFTER SWARTHMORE, HE PLAYED INTHE MINOR LEAGUES FOR TWO YEARS. HE’SIN THE FRONT ROW, SECOND FROM LEFT, INTHE PHOTO (OPPOSITE PAGE) OF THE 1940ST. ALBANS [VT.] GIANTS. ASINOF’S BEST-KNOWN BOOK IS EIGHT MEN OUT, THESTORY OF THE 1919 “BLACK SOX” SCAN-DAL, LATER THE SUBJECT OF A FILM.ELI WALLACH“I PLAYED FOR JOY, NOT FOR AMBITION. THE LONG, BATTERINGBUS RIDES AFTER NIGHT GAMES, THE INADEQUATE LIGHTS,GRUBBY LOCKER ROOMS, SLEAZY HOTEL ROOMS, TERRIBLE FOOD, LOWPAY ... NOTHING BOTHERED US, FOR WE WERE PLAYING BALL.”used to challenge him to throw me his beststuff. I could hit it all right—until he’dsmile and fool me with an off-speed breakingpitch.”Asinof couldn’t get enough baseball andsoon found himself playing twilight ball fora semipro team in Chester, Pa., assumingthe name Johnny Elliott to protect his collegeeligibility. Earnshaw thought theyoung first baseman might have the talentto play professionally after college andarranged for him to play summer ball in aNew York–New England college leaguesponsored by the Big Leagues. There hebecame friends with Mickey Rutner, a solidplayer who would later get a shot at themajors—and who became the main characterin Man on Spikes, Asinof’s first book(1955).The day he graduated from Swarthmorewith Honors in history, Asinof signed acontract with the Philadelphia Phillies. Heplayed two seasons in the minor leaguesbefore joining the Army after the start ofWorld War II.“I played for joy, not for ambition,” helater wrote. “The long, battering bus ridesafter night games, the inadequate lights,grubby locker rooms, sleazy hotel rooms,terrible food, low pay ... nothing botheredus, for we were playing ball.”Along the way, there were cruel, despoticmanagers and anti-Semitic obscenitiesfrom opposing players and fans. “It was, inmany ways, a hate-ridden, competitiveworld, but in the end, the game was thething, the only thing.... Baseball was playedwith a bat and a glove, not with a mouth.”His former teammate Mickey Rutner hadtaught him how to cope:“‘F— ’em all, big and small,’ Mickeyused to say. This became the philosophicalpremise of my existence. Sometimes, youface situations where you are at the mercyof forces beyond your control, and if you tryto reach a logical solution, you’re gonna gocrazy. So how do you save your ass? Say,‘F— ’em all, big and small.’ It gives you asense of liberation.”Much of Asinof’s work is about peoplewho find themselves in situations likethis, who struggle to hold on to their dignityand power.There’s Laurence Blutcher (People vs.Blutcher, 1970), a young black man whoseentanglements with a brutal and corruptcriminal justice system become a poignantindictment of racism in America. There areCraig Badiali and Joan Fox (Craig and Joan,1971), two New Jersey teens who commitsuicide in 1969 as a protest against theVietnam War—kids whose lives in anuptight suburb seem hopeless and beyondtheir control. The Fox Is Crazy Too (1976) isa portrait of Garrett Trapnell, a bank robberand con man who manipulates the insanitydefense—which Asinof abhors—to evadeprison.It’s the same in Asinof’s fiction. Say ItAin’t So, Gordon Littlefield (1977) recasts theBlack Sox story as a dark but zany plot tothrow the Super Bowl. The hero of his latestnovel, Off Season, is a major-leagueballplayer named John Cagle who confrontssome demons from his past and recognizesthat certain responsibilities go with hisfame and fortune.And then there’s “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.Some say that Eight Men Out is the bestbaseball book ever written. As every fanknows, eight members of the 1919 ChicagoWhite Sox took small-time money frombig-time gamblers to throw that fall’s WorldM A R C H 2 0 0 133