The celebrant is narrator Jackie Kapinski, turn-of-the-century
jewelry designer; the object of his celebration is real-life
baseball star Christy Mathewson, the game's first hero (1880-1925);
and the theme of this slight, slow, but engaging first novel is
Idealistic Perfection vs. Crass, Mundane Reality. Jackie first sees
handsome, college-man Mathewson pitch for the Giants in 1901 - the
famous no-hit game in St. Louis, where Jackie (a onetime aspiring
pitcher) is on a business trip for the immigrant-family/jewelry
firm. He tells his brother: "He's marvelous, Eli, just marvelous,
and I have to let him know that I know it." So Jackie designs a
special ring for Mathewson, a tribute which Mathewson seems to
truly understand and appreciate. But, over the years, Jackie's two
partner/brothers - coarse gambler Eli, young marketing hot-shot
Arthur - insist on turning Jackie's tribute (and his
distant-yet-intense relationship with Mathewson) into crass
business opportunities: a World Series ring gimmick, an endorsement
from Mathewson, Eli's use of baseball connections for his gambling
exploits. By 1912, then, Jackie feels that he is "exploiting rather
than glorifying the hero." And this souring-of-beautiful-perfection
seems to be paralleled in Mathewson's career, in the history of
baseball itself: Mathewson retires in 1916, manages in Cincinnati,
but resigns after a scandal, is a grievously-wounded witness to the
1919 World Series fix (in which Eli has a stake), and confronts
Jackie in a heavyhanded Message finale: "I'd achieved the
perfection you celebrated in stone. Then followed doubt, confusion,
failure, and finally betrayal. . . ." Throughout, in fact,
first-novelist Greenberg overstates his theme - with Mathewson too
much the Perfect Hero, Jackie too gushy a fan. And only
baseball-history buffs will appreciate the reconstructed
play-by-play here, the dugout details that stretch a novella-shaped
story out to novel length. But the counterpoint of baseball and
jewelry-making is intriguing, the tone is genuinely innocent and
enthusiastic - and fans of the baseball novel (along with a few
others) will find this a somewhat preachy yet fresh-angled approach
to essentially familiar material. (Kirkus Reviews)
The first two decades of the twentieth century were a time of
promise and innocence in America. Hardworking immigrants could
achieve the American dream; heroes were truly heroic. Eric Rolfe
Greenberg brilliantly and authentically chronicles the real-life
saga of the first national baseball hero, Christy Mathewson, and
the fictional story of a Jewish immigrant family of jewelers. In
these pages Mathewson and other great players like John McGraw,
Honus Wagner, and Connie Mack discover the realities behind the
shining illusions: the burdens of being a hero and the temptations
that taint success. Purchase the audio edition.
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