{"id":73677,"date":"2014-07-08T18:09:44","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T22:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=73677"},"modified":"2014-07-08T18:31:16","modified_gmt":"2014-07-08T22:31:16","slug":"a-glorious-figure-of-young-manhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/08\/a-glorious-figure-of-young-manhood\/","title":{"rendered":"A Glorious Figure of Young Manhood"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\/* <![CDATA[ *\/ portfolio_slideshow.slideshows[213] = {\"timeout\":\"4000\",\"autoplay\":\"false\",\"trans\":\"fade\",\"loop\":\"true\",\"speed\":\"400\",\"nowrap\":\"true\"}; \/* ]]> *\/<\/script><div id=\"slideshow-wrapper213\" class=\"slideshow-wrapper clearfix portfolio-slideshow-centered\">\n<div id=\"slideshow-nav213\" class=\"slideshow-nav\">\n\t<a class=\"pause\" style=\"display:none\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\">Pause<\/a>\n\t<a class=\"play\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\">Play<\/a>\n\t<a 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not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/it-was-the-longest-hit-that-ever-had-been-made-on-the-polo-grounds.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"383\" alt=\"Slide 6\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/baseball-joe-home-run-king.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"800\" width=\"509\" alt=\"Slide 7\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/joe-caught-it-square-on-the-end-of-the-bat.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"380\" alt=\"Slide 8\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/joe-was-doing-good-work.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"376\" alt=\"Slide 9\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/the-next-moment-the-horsehide-went-speeding-toward-the-plate.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"379\" alt=\"Slide 10\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"slideshow-meta\">\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n<\/div><\/div><!--#slideshow-wrapper-->\n<p>If baseball remains, however tenuously, our national pastime, then Joe Matson, the eponymous hero of Lester Chadwick\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/ebooks\/search\/?query=baseball+joe\" target=\"_blank\">Baseball Joe<\/a> series, remains our all-American man: an \u201ceveryday country-boy\u201d with a can-do attitude, an unimpeachable sense of right and wrong, and a fucking cannon-arm. Chadwick\u2019s sequence of boys\u2019 novels, published from 1912 to 1928, follows Joe on a Horatio Alger\u2013esque journey from small-town schoolyard star to World Series slugger. Spoiler alert: Joe wins. Joe always wins.<\/p>\n<p>With their cheery illustrations and gee-whiz spirit, the Baseball Joe novels emblematize a brand of wish fulfillment that stands at a far remove from the young-adult fiction of today: there\u2019s no dystopia here, nor even a whiff of the supernatural, unless you count Joe\u2019s otherworldly batting average. What we have instead is the distillate of dozens of summers spent dreaming in baseball diamonds, redolent not of beer and nuts but of Wonder Bread and whole milk and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver.<\/p>\n<p>Or so it seems. Turns out the Baseball Joe books had some dark subplots, though you\u2019d never know it to look at their publisher\u2019s catalog, which supplies breathless titles with curiously terse synopses: <!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS<br \/> <em>or The Rivals of Riverside<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Joe is an everyday country boy who loves to play baseball and particularly to pitch.<\/p>\n<p>BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE<br \/> <em>or Pitching for the Blue Banner<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Joe\u2019s great ambition was to go to boarding school and play on the school team.<\/p>\n<p>BASEBALL JOE AT YALE<br \/> <em>or Pitching for the College Championship<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Joe goes to Yale University. In his second year he becomes a varsity pitcher and pitches in several big games.<\/p>\n<p>BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE<br \/> <em>or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From Yale college to a baseball league of our Central States.<\/p>\n<p>BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE<br \/> <em>or A Young Pitcher\u2019s Hardest Struggles<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From the Central League Joe goes to the St. Louis Nationals.<\/p>\n<p>BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS<br \/> <em>or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay.<\/p>\n<p>BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES<br \/> <em>or Pitching for the Championship<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What Joe did to win the series will thrill the most jaded reader.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Fortunately for us, Tim Morris, of the University of Texas, has compiled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uta.edu\/english\/tim\/baseball\/juv\/chadwick.html\" target=\"_blank\">a guide to the <em>Baseball Joe<\/em> books<\/a> as part of a study of juvenile baseball fiction\u2014a once-booming subgenre. And so we come to discover the sensational undertones of <em>Silver Stars<\/em>, in which \u201cJoe foils some intellectual pirates who are intent on stealing Mr. Matson Sr.\u2019s patents for a new kind of corn reaper\u201d; <em>In the Big League<\/em>, in which \u201cJoe is at one point chloroformed, kidnapped, and set adrift in the marshes of New Jersey\u201d; and <em>Champion of the League<\/em>, in which \u201cshameless confidence men try to get Joe to throw the pennant \u2026 when Joe turns them down, the con men commission a mad scientist to invent a ray gun that will drain the power from Joe\u2019s pitching arm.\u201d What\u2019s this? Slider-pitching, dinger-hitting Joe is more than a mere sportsman. He\u2019s a kind of also-ran action hero.<\/p>\n<p>For adrenaline junkies like Baseball Joe, too much is never enough. That\u2019s the dark side of the all-American fantasy\u2014it\u2019s not sufficient for a young man to content himself with immense athletic talents and an unlikely trajectory toward major-league superstardom. This is America, god damn it! We need more! He must also stop patent thieves, survive involuntary anesthetization in the Garden State, and thwart mad scientists for hire.<\/p>\n<p>These passages, alternately charming and depressing, are the best parts of the\u00a0Baseball Joe books; there are any number of dubious scenarios in which Joe\u2019s athletic prowess is\u00a0<em>the only thing<\/em> that can save the day. For a quick sample, look to the purple prose of <em>On the School Nine<\/em>, wherein it falls to Baseball Joe to save a man in a burning factory, \u201cperched on the ledge of what had once been the clock tower,\u201d by pitching him a ball of cord:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Joe hesitated a moment. Everything would depend on his one throw, because there was no chance to get another ball of cord, and if this one went wide it would fall into the fire and be rendered useless.<\/p>\n<p>The fire was increasing, for all the chemicals in the tank on the wagon had been used, and no fresh supply was available. Below the tower on which the man stood, the flames raged and crackled. Even the tower itself was ablaze a little and at times the smoke hid the man from view momentarily \u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019ll never do it,\u201d murmured Hiram Shell.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he does he\u2019s a better pitcher than I\u2019ll ever be,\u201d admitted Frank Brown.<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly Joe threw. The white ball was plainly visible as it sailed through the air, unwinding as it mounted upward. On and on it went, Joe, no less than every one in the crowd, watching it with eager eyes. And as for the man on the tower he eagerly stretched out his hands to catch the ball of cord, on which his life now depended \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Straight and true it went, as swift and as direct a ball as Baseball Joe had ever delivered. Straight and true\u2014on and on and then\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Into the hands of the anxiously waiting man went the ball of cord. Eagerly he clutched it, while the crowd set up a great cheer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the stuff!\u201d yelled a man in Joe\u2019s ear. \u201cYou sure are one good pitcher, my boy!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And this is why baseball must remain a vital aspect of American culture; no child raised on soccer or football could be expected to chuck a life-saving fastball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If baseball remains, however tenuously, our national pastime, then Joe Matson, the eponymous hero of Lester Chadwick\u2019s Baseball Joe series, remains our all-American man: an \u201ceveryday country-boy\u201d with a can-do attitude, an unimpeachable sense of right and wrong, and a fucking cannon-arm. Chadwick\u2019s sequence of boys\u2019 novels, published from 1912 to 1928, follows Joe on [&hellip;]<\/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":[489],"tags":[14537,3618,2783,14538,14539,6053,85],"class_list":["post-73677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-2","tag-baseball-joe","tag-childrens-books","tag-illustrations","tag-juvenile-literature","tag-lester-chadwick","tag-public-domain","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Glorious Figure of Young Manhood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring on Lester Chadwick\u2019s Baseball Joe series.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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