Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game

by Dan Barry

Overview

“Bottom of the 33rd is chaw—chewing, sunflower—spitting, pine tar proof that too much baseball is never enough.” —Jane Leavy, author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax 

“What a book—an exquisite exercise in story—telling, democracy and myth—making.” —Colum McCann, winner of the National Book Award for  Let The Great World Spin 

From Pulitzer Prize—winning New York Times columnist Dan Barry comes the beautifully recounted story of the longest game in baseball history—a tale celebrating not only the robust intensity of baseball, but the aspirational ideal epitomized by the hard—fighting players of the minor leagues. In the tradition of Moneyball, The Last Hero, and Wicked Good Year, Barry’s Bottom of the 33^rd is a reaffirming story of the American Dream finding its greatest expression in timeless contests of the Great American Pastime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062065032
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/03/2011
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	438
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Dan Barry is a reporter and columnist for the New York Times. In 1994 he was part of an investigative team at the Providence Journal that won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on Rhode Island’s justice system. He is the author of a memoir, a collection of his About New York columns, and Bottom of the 33rd, for which he won the 2012 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Maplewood, New Jersey.

What People are Saying About This

Gay Talese

“Dan’s Barry’s meticulous reporting and literary talent are both evident in Bottom of the 33rd, a pitch-perfect and seamless meditation on baseball and the human condition.”

Stefan Fatsis

“A worthy companion to Roger Kahn’s classic Boys of Summer ...[Dan Barry] exploits the power of memory and nostalgia with literary grace and journalistic exactitude. He blends a vivid, moment-by-moment re-creation of the game with what happens to its participants in the next 30 years.”

Jane Leavy

Dan Barry has crafted a loving and lyrical tribute to a time and a place when you stayed until the final out...because that’s what we did in America. Bottom of the 33rd is chaw-chewing, sunflower-spitting, pine tar proof that too much baseball is never enough.

Colum McCann

“What a book — an exquisite exercise in story-telling, democracy and myth-making that has, at its center, a great respect for the symphony of voices that make up America.”

Editorial Reviews

The improbable web of coincidences that made this event possible…becomes credible once you have witnessed the scope of Barry's reporting. He seems to have talked to every­body…At his best, Barry is an uncle spinning a story by the fire, halting each time a new character enters the narrative to offer a biographical sketch or a telling anecdote.
—The New York Times Book Review

Marc Tracy

Rather than take the easy road—such as leaning heavily upon the star power of Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Wade Boggs, both of whom played in the game but who figure only slightly in the narrative—Barry masterfully pieces together his story from the perimeter in…The book is both a fount of luxurious writing…and a tour-de-force of reportage…Barry appears to have interviewed the majority of the game's principals in person, and he describes everything from the decrepit appearance of the ticket booth to the multi-colored scribbles in the official scorer's scorebook with a perfectionist's eye for detail.
—The Washington Post

Dave Sheinin

…despite its sometimes breathless tone and metaphorical overreaching, Bottom of the 33rd is…a worthy companion to Roger Kahn's classic Boys of Summer, about the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s. While the books' subjects are baseball opposites—one bizarre minor-league game versus a historically beloved major-league team—Mr. Barry, like Mr. Kahn, exploits the power of memory and nostalgia with literary grace and journalistic exactitude. He blends a vivid, moment-by-moment re-creation of the game with what happens to its participants in the next 30 years.
—The New York Times

Stefan Fatsis

“[A] masterpiece...destined for the Hall of Fame of baseball books.” - –Publisher's Weekly
“A fascinating, beautifully told story... In the hands of Barry, a national correspondent for the New York Times, this marathon of duty, loyalty, misery and folly becomes a riveting narrative...The book feels like ‘Our Town’ on the diamond.” - –Los Angeles Times
“An astonishing tale that lyrically articulates baseball’s inexorable grip on its players and fans, Bottom of the 33rd belongs among the best baseball books ever written.” - –Cleveland Plain Dealer
Dan Barry has crafted a loving and lyrical tribute to a time and a place when you stayed until the final out...because that’s what we did in America. Bottom of the 33rd is chaw-chewing, sunflower-spitting, pine tar proof that too much baseball is never enough. - –Jane Leavy
“What a book -- an exquisite exercise in story-telling, democracy and myth-making that has, at its center, a great respect for the symphony of voices that make up America.” - –Colum McCann
“Brilliantly rendered...The book is both a fount of luxurious writing and a tour-de-force of reportage.” - –Washington Post
Winner of the 2012 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting - Penthouse, on Dishwasher
“[An] heroic conjuring of the past.” - –New York Times Book Review
“Dan’s Barry’s meticulous reporting and literary talent are both evident in Bottom of the 33rd, a pitch-perfect and seamless meditation on baseball and the human condition.” - –Gay Talese
“Meticulously researched and tremendously entertaining!” - –Columbus Dispatch
“[Dan] Barry does more than simply recount the inning-by-inning-by-inning box score. He delves beneath the surface, like an archaeologist piecing together the shards and fragments of a forgotten society, to reconstruct a time and a night that have become part of baseball lore.” - –Associated Press
“Whether you’re a baseball aficionado or a reader who just enjoys a good yarn, you’ll love this book.” - –Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A worthy companion to Roger Kahn’s classic Boys of Summer ...[Dan Barry] exploits the power of memory and nostalgia with literary grace and journalistic exactitude. He blends a vivid, moment-by-moment re-creation of the game with what happens to its participants in the next 30 years.” - –Stefan Fatsis, New York Times

From the Publisher