The strange case of Stephen Strasburg–missing the playoffs if he exceeds his innings pitched limit–has parallels with the Balzac novel “The Magic Skin.”
Tag Archives: Bernard Malamud
Stephen Strasburg as a Balzac Parable
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Baseball, Honoré de Balzac, Magic Skin, Natural, Peau de Chagrin, Sports, Stephen Strasburg Comments closed
Soccer Highs and Lows and a Tennis Epic
John Isner Sports Saturday – “It’s incredible! You could not write a script like this!” So proclaimed the announcer in the U. S. – Algeria World Cup match when Landon Donovan netted a stoppage time goal to avoid elimination and send the Americans forward to the next round. In other words, a sports announcer’s ultimate […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bruce Cohen, France, Iowa Baseball Confederacy, Isner-Malmut match, Jean Paul Sartre, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Nausea, Soccer, Sports, Sports film, tennis, the Natural, Voyage to the End of the Night, W. P. Kinsella, Wimbledon, World Cup Comments closed
Will Tiger Woods Weep Bitter Tears?
Sports Saturday “When Roy looked into the boy’s eyes he wanted to say it wasn’t [true] but couldn’t, and he lifted his hands to his face and wept many bitter tears.” (The Natural) In a fine post for the New York Times that I wish I had written, Richard Wright turns to Bernard Malamud’s The […]
On Mark McGwire and Fallen Idols
Robert Redford in The Natural I take a momentary break from Margaret Edson’s W;t to address Mark McGwire’s confession yesterday to having used steroids. The man whose homerun race with Sammy Sosa “saved baseball” and who then refused to “speak about the past” in a Congressional hearing is finally opening up. Or at least opening […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Baseball, Disillusion, Human fallibility, innocence, Natural, Sports Comments closed
