Casey on the Loose

New York: Viking, 1989. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Abe Seltzer (Photographs). [18], 106, [6] pages. Illustrations. DJ has slight wear and soiling. DJ has subtitle of "What Really Might Have Happened." Before the title page, is a page stating "Huge Commotion in Mudville Amazing Finish! Slugger Didn't Arrive Till Seventh Inning Beautiful, Evil Woman Seen In His Company. WOULDN''T YOU KNOW IT Sun Still Shining Bright As Undisclosed U.S. Site. Benjamin Franklin Deford III (December 16, 1938 - May 28, 2017) was an American sportswriter and novelist. From 1980 until 2017, he was a regular sports commentator on NPR'. Deford wrote for Sports Illustrated magazine from 1962 until 2017. He wrote 18 books, nine of them novels. A member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame, Deford was six times voted National Sportswriter of the Year and was twice voted Magazine Writer of the Year by the Washington Journalism Review. In 2012, Deford became the first magazine recipient of the Red Smith Award. Deford uses Ernest Thayer's classic poem ``Casey at the Bat'' to create a whimsical tale blending fact, fiction and fantasy. Timothy Casey is a brilliant young ``ballist'' whose extraordinary hitting has galvanized the town of Mudville. Living near Boston, Casey falls in love with beautiful Florence Cleary, a recent Irish immigrant working as a maid. ``Mighty Casey'' also meets Chester Drinkwater, an unscrupulous businessman who lies to the young ballplayer and for a price convinces him to leave the Mudville Nine. After splitting with Flossie over Drinkwater, Casey encounters Richard Fox, the editor of the National Police Gazette , who's in Boston to convince the great John L. Sullivan to defend his boxing crown. Casey's altercation with the drunk and overweight champion is the next event in this cleverly extended what-if, tracing fictitious events that lead up to the actual at-bat immortalized by the Thayer poem. Deford writes lovingly of a time long past and his set-up of the famous at-bat is nicely conceived.