by Opening Day (Stateside) is tomorrow (!) Recently I had the chance to talk to Eric Gray, who is the author of Bases to Bleachers and Backyards to Ballparks, with unique baseball stories from the stands and beyond.
Gotham Baseball: You have two books, Bases to Bleachers, and Backyards to Ballparks. What are they about?
Eric Gray: These two books are collection of stories from folks about their experiences that, in one way or another, touch upon baseball. Some involve play-of-game, but they generally are more human interest in nature. They are memories, stories, that touch on so many facets of involvement with the game, from playing to watching, from the major leagues to a pre-little league game in a backyard. They involve shared experiences with family and friends, many with a very sentimental and emotional component. Meeting ball players, catching a ball, being an usher, these are just some of the chapters. These stories have given people the opportunity to revisit wonderful memories from their lives, and reading them, in turn, has reminded people of their own stories.
GB: How did you conceive of the idea behind the book and what inspired you to put it all together?
EG: I was at a ball game with my wife, daughter and friend in August 2011. The pace of baseball gives people the opportunity to talk with the folks they are with, maybe with the strangers sitting next to them, or just the time to think. I asked the simple question, “What is your favorite baseball memory”. They told me their answers, and then I sent emails to friends, giving my list of games, but not with stories. I included a friend who does not like baseball, just to give him a hard time. He responded with a story that was so personal, so wonderful, it was clear that writing the first book is what I had to do.
GB: What is your personal favorite baseball memory or experience from the ballpark or beyond?
EG: After writing these books, thinking about my stories, I still don’t know that I can identify my absolute favorite. Being at Mickey Mantle’s retirement day game is one; Mickey was my hero. Perhaps it was taking my kids to their first game, which turned my daughter (and later, my son) into a baseball fanatic. We found out that we would be grandparents while at a game, and I took my two granddaughters to their first games. I have a couple of great memories of doing great things on the softball field followed immediately by screw-ups. But perhaps my favorite memory is how Matt Cain’s perfect game connected my wife and me, and our daughter, and son, as baseball always has done.
GB: You received well over a thousand submissions for your books. How did you go about reducing it to the stories that you ended up choosing for publication? What did you use as a litmus test?
EG: There were 1200 stories when I put my first book together, 2000 by the time of the second. Some chapters I could have predicted, like family connections, meeting a player, and famous, historical games. For other chapters, equally obvious, such as a first game, catching a ball, or coaching, there weren’t enough good ones for the first book, so they were held back for the second. But others simply, surprisingly emerged from what I received, including stories about the Negro Leagues, women in baseball, and stories from other countries, There were no litmus test per se, just how the stories made me feel. My wife was a frequent sounding board. But the only criteria were that they had to tell a story that other people would be interested in reading.
GB: Is there a common thread that ties many people’s stories together?
EG: Every chapter is thematically-based, and there is an introduction to each chapter that attempts to explain that common thread. So, the primary commonalities are very clear within chapters. But there is a larger connector, and, trite or not, it is often although not always love of the game, the passion. Whether it is passion for a team or player, or a love of the game handed down from one generation to the next, it is genuine. I have always said that for a game that is not inherently passionate, following it is. I honestly can’t imagine writing this kind of book about any other sport. Why else do people start counting, when the World Series is over, the number of days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training?
GB: What is it about the sport of baseball that makes it so endearing to generations of fans?
EG: Everyone of course would have a different answer to this, but for me, it is the history of the game, that love of the game so often handed down from one generation to the next. Some will tell you it is too slow; personally, the pace enhances my appreciation. The thrills of basketball are for me undeniable but sitting at a baseball game on a warm (well, not in San Francisco) afternoon, being with my wife or kids or friends, being able to talk about whatever comes up and still not miss anything in the game, that is wonderful. So many of the stories revolve around shared experiences with other generations of family.
GB: Did you receive more stories about winning than losing? Serious over funny?
EG: Winning and losing was never a factor I ever thought about. As a large portion of the stories didn’t directly involve play-of-game, that really wasn’t a factor. Certainly, some stories involved the thrill of winning, the agony of losing, but that wasn’t core to the book. There are many stories that are serious, a few even tragic, some that I would call neither serious nor funny, but there are quite a few that are just hilarious, in terms of what occurred on the field or in the stands. Without counting, I would say that far more were on the funny side. And there are some stories about going to a game and, for various reasons, suddenly rooting for the other team!
GB: How did you go about collecting these stories? What were the parameters given to writers?
EG: When a friend sent the story that made me decide to write the book, I became obsessed with collecting stories. First, I asked friends and family, and then asked them, in turn, to ask their friends. Then I started asking random strangers, especially if they were wearing something that identified them as a baseball fan. To broaden the geographical areas from where stories came, I joined Facebook baseball groups, which was a great source for me. The parameters were simple: I gave examples of categories, but people often ignored the guidelines they asked for and gave me remarkable stories of very different natures. There was no real word count limitation. They just had to tell a story, not just recount an event.
GB: What makes some of the anecdotes shared in your books so relatable and timeless?
EG: So many of the stories make you think about your own experiences and people have told me that over and over again. It is certainly true for me, hearing a story and then reflecting back to something that I experienced. It upsets me that I can’t remember my first game, but so many people do, and I remember the first games for my kids and my granddaughters. Using that example, it really doesn’t matter if your first game involved seeing Mickey Mantle in 1956 or Juan Soto in 2020. What you will most likely remember is the infield dirt, the vast expanse of green outfield grass, the vendors selling hot dogs and cracker jack, and the roar of the crowd. These experiences are indeed timeless and universal.
GB: Did some stories sound too good to be true?
EG: Yes, indeed. A friend gave me a story about meeting a superstar but had no idea who it was. He gave her an autograph. I had no reason to not believe her, but I smiled when she sent me, years later, a copy of the autograph she had found. There was a fantastical story that took place in the grandstand at Yankee Stadium It was too much to believe, so I asked the storyteller an innocuous question designed to poke a little, and she explained how she knew it was true. Some stories are just about being in the right place at the right time. My mouth was often seen wide open in surprise when I read the stories people sent.
GB: Your four-decade career was spent at the Dept of Labor. Did you have dreams in your youth of playing baseball in the Big Leagues?
EG: No, it was never something I thought about. I played Little League, and stickball, and softball, but that was not an aspiration, partly because I wasn’t that good. I would have preferred to play pro basketball, but again, not a reasonable goal; I was barely 6’1 and couldn’t dribble. I did however want to be a baseball announcer and would “broadcast” the games my brother and I would play on the street of our suburban home on Sunday mornings, irritating my parents! I took much greater satisfaction later on coaching my kids in T-ball and then Little League, and also managing my co-ed softball team. To this day, I still keep score when I go to a ball game.
GB: Were there stories of romance or friendship in your books?
EG: Many stories involve going to ball games with friends; sometimes the friendship aspect of the stories is important, as in coming-of-age memories, often the friends were just mentioned as a seat partner. There is an entire chapter on Love and Baseball, including marriage proposals, realizing you were in love, and the joy of enjoying baseball with a partner. As with many of the chapters, especially in the first book, there are anomalies, such as the proposal that was a disaster and comparing love of various baseball teams with romantic relationships. That is a pretty amazing story. There are a couple of stories of partners who like rival teams…and how they resolve those issues.
GB: Are you concerned that baseball viewing and youth participation in playing the sport has been on a long, steady decline?
EG: I know that MLB thinks it is losing its young audience because young people think the games are too slow. That has resulted in rules changes designed to speed up the game to, theoretically, interest younger folks. Personally, I don’t think games are too long, certainly not longer than football games which have lots of time between plays. I don’t care for the rule changes in theory, although I am okay with most of them in practice. But I do know when I am at a game, and I look around at the attendees, I see a lot of young people, and that includes women who go with friends, not just their boyfriends or husbands. My son and all his friends love the game
GB: Which of the stories shared with you still stick with you today?
EG: Many. The story from a woman who played in the league that the movie “League of Our Own” was based on, and the story from a Japanese- American woman who played in the internment camps during WWII, ostensibly to “normalize life”. My wife’s story, finding out at a game that we were going to be grandparents. The story from a guy who just wanted to have a catch, and one about a friendship forged with Hank Aaron. The story from a man who went to a game with his son, the last time ever, because his son was killed in Afghanistan. Honestly, I clearly remember almost every story, the people who contributed them and where we met.
GB: The life of a baseball fan is often a challenging or frustrating one. Did it surprise you that old and young people from all across the nation had such emotional and meaningful stories to share?
EG: I would have thought that when I began this project, but after just a little while, it ceased to be a surprise. I don’t think you could write a book like this about other sports; I have no real basis for making that claim other than just a feeling. It is something to do with the history, the shared experiences among family and between friends, but also the pace of the game that enables people to talk while they watch. Many people know how many home runs Mickey Mantle hit, but how many know how many touchdown passes Johnny Unitas threw? The most wonderful, unexpected result of these books is the friendships I have made with people from around the country, and they all started with baseball, people my age, younger and older.
