Out of My League: The Classic Hilarious Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball

by George Plimpton, Jane Leavy Narrated by Robert Fass

Overview

The baseball classic that Ernest Hemingway called "beautifully observed and incredibly conceived," now recorded and including a foreword from Jane Leavy.

The first of Plimpton's remarkable forays into participatory journalism, OUT OF MY LEAGUE chronicles with wit, charm, and grace what happens when a self-professed amateur has the chance to answer every fan's question: could he strike out a major league star?

Plimpton's inspired idea--to get on the mound and pitch a few innings to the All-Stars of the American and National Leagues--begins as a fun-filled stunt and comes to a deeply hellish, nearly humiliating end. This honest and hilarious tale features Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Whitey Ford, Ralph Houk, and other baseball greats and is "a baseball book such as no one else ever wrote, and one of the best ever." --New York Herald Tribune

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2016 - AudioFile

Writer George Plimpton’s experience pitching against Major Leaguers comes alive in this first-person account from the mound. Narrator Robert Fass gives Plimpton an ever-so-light New England, by way of Exeter Academy, accent, a solid reminder of the late author. In 1958, Plimpton—on assignment for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED—set out to face the National and American Leagues’ batting lineups, with the magazine putting up $1,000 to the team that fared better against Plimpton. Fass does a great job throughout, and he especially shines when Plimpton details the inner voice equally guiding and cajoling him—a voice the writer himself finds ironic since it is delivered in a Southern accent. This wonderful, honest, humorous listen draws on Fass’s high-quality narration. M.B. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

"Beautifully observed and incredibly conceived, this account of a self-imposed ordeal has the chilling quality of a true nightmare. It is the dark side of the moon of Walter Mitty."—Ernest Hemingway"

A baseball book such as no one else ever wrote, and one of the best ever."—New York Herald Tribune"

Out of My League copes with the problem of the imaginary nightmare of walking every batter and the glittering triumph (the shutout) of striking them out, one after the other."—Marianne Moore

MAY 2016 - AudioFile

Writer George Plimpton’s experience pitching against Major Leaguers comes alive in this first-person account from the mound. Narrator Robert Fass gives Plimpton an ever-so-light New England, by way of Exeter Academy, accent, a solid reminder of the late author. In 1958, Plimpton—on assignment for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED—set out to face the National and American Leagues’ batting lineups, with the magazine putting up $1,000 to the team that fared better against Plimpton. Fass does a great job throughout, and he especially shines when Plimpton details the inner voice equally guiding and cajoling him—a voice the writer himself finds ironic since it is delivered in a Southern accent. This wonderful, honest, humorous listen draws on Fass’s high-quality narration. M.B. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173434302
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	04/26/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	541,221

Read an Excerpt

I stared miserably out into the locker room. Actually the room was crowded and noisy and there was nothing really in that atmosphere to inspire an attack of nerves: across the way Ashburn was getting on toward the end of This Week in Baseball; a few players were seated around their table pushing ballpoint pens slowly aacrss the horsehide surfaces of baseballs; the noise and laughter came from a tight circle of reporters and admiring surrounding a player, pumping him, and smoke lifted out thickly, illuminated periodically by the blue blink of a flash camera. No one was aware of me, or questioning my presence in a player's cubicle, and yet my knees were were quivering and I began to yawn helplessly—the thick weight of nerves draining me of energy.

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