{"id":73427,"date":"2014-07-01T18:14:33","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T22:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=73427"},"modified":"2014-07-02T01:14:22","modified_gmt":"2014-07-02T05:14:22","slug":"swinging-for-the-fences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/01\/swinging-for-the-fences\/","title":{"rendered":"Swinging for the Fences"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"softball\"<\/a>

The Paris Review<\/i>\u2019s Hailey Gates, Stephen Andrew Hiltner, and Clare Fentress at the game against The New Yorker<\/i> last week.<\/p><\/div>\n

A certain literary quarterly graced Page Six this morning, and it\u2019s not because we\u2019re in rehab or recently posed nude or hosted a tony, freewheeling charity dinner in Sagaponack\u2014though we aspire to do those things, ideally all at once.<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s because we have a damn fine softball team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fact is, The Paris Review<\/em> Parisians are on something of a hot streak; in our five games this season, we\u2019ve met with defeat only once, at the hands of The Nation<\/em>. And we play a good clean game: no pine tar, no corked bats, no steroids (unless you count the occasional can of Bud Light). We believe, like Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham<\/em>, in the Church of Baseball. It was only a matter of time until we attracted the attention of the gossip rags. Says the Post <\/em><\/a>of our game against Harper\u2019s <\/em>last week,<\/p>\n

\n

“A string of \u2018Parisian\u2019 homers” put eight more runs on the board \u2026 the \u201cmercy rule\u201d was invoked\u2014meaning nobody kept count \u2026 A spy said of The Paris Review<\/em>\u2019s crew that also pummeled The New Yorker<\/em> two days earlier: \u201cTheir team was so good-looking and so coordinated, I could hardly believe any of them actually knew how to read. Let alone know what to do with a semicolon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The print version of the piece puts an even finer point on it: \u201cLiterary sluggers in rout,\u201d its headline says.<\/p>\n

In just a few hours, the Parisians\u2014now well acquainted with the art of being vain\u2014take on Vanity Fair<\/em>, itself no stranger to Page Six. What\u2019s at stake is more than just bragging rights: it\u2019s what John Updike called, in \u201cHub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,\u201d \u201cthe tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A certain literary quarterly graced Page Six this morning, and it\u2019s not because we\u2019re in rehab or recently posed nude or hosted a tony, freewheeling charity dinner in Sagaponack\u2014though we aspire to do those things, ideally all at once. No, it\u2019s because we have a damn fine softball team. Fact is, The Paris Review Parisians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[10650,136,615,14479,20538,40,14480,50],"class_list":["post-73427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-softball","tag-bull-durham","tag-harpers","tag-john-updike","tag-page-six","tag-softball","tag-the-new-yorker","tag-the-parisians","tag-vanity-fair"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSwinging for the Fences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Paris Review makes Page Six\u2014for softball.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/01\/swinging-for-the-fences\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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