Once More Around the Park

The most celebrated baseball writer of our time has selected his favorite pieces from the last forty years to create Once More Around the Park, a definitive volume of his most memorable work. Mr. Angell includes writing never previously collected as well as selections from The Summer Game, Five Seasons, Late Innings, and Season Ticket. He brings back the extraordinary games, innings and performances that he has witnessed and written about so astutely and gracefully-"The Interior Stadium," on the complex attractions of baseball; "In the Country," on a friendship that began with a fan letter and took him far from the big stadiums and big money; "The Arm Talks," on contemporary pitching strategy and the arrival of the split-finger delivery; and many others. Mr. Angell's conversations with past and present players and managers, scouts and coaches, rookies and Hall of Famers enhance his own expertise and critical appreciation, which define him as the game's most useful and ardent fan. "Angell resembles a pitcher with pinpoint control. As a chronicler of the game, he's in a class with Ring Lardner and Red Smith."-Newsweek."Angell's perceptions are fresh, vivid, and uncannily accurate.... Only a fan who cares this much could observe so carefully and write so eloquently."-San Francisco Chronicle.
"A triumph of art and grace."-Chicago Tribune Book World."In the course of a well-lived century, he established himself as. . .baseball's finest, fondest chronicler." -The New Yorker

Roger Angell (1920-2022) was senior fiction editor of the New Yorker magazine and the author of, among other books, A Day in the Life of Roger Angell, The Summer Game, Five Seasons, Late Innings, and Season Ticket. In 2014, he was awarded the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the Baseball Hall of Fame's honor for writers.

Part 1 Preface ix
Part 2 Box Scores 3
Part 3 from: The "Go!" Shouters 5
Part 4 Days and Nights with the Unbored 10
Part 5 Three for the Tigers 24
Part 6 Gone for Good 43
Part 7 from: Agincourt and After 69
Part 8 On the Ball 86
Part 9 from: Several Stories with Sudden Endings 95
Part 10 from: Wilver's Way 99
Part 11 So Long at the Fair 117
Part 12 Distance 125
Part 13 The Web of the Game 153
Part 14 In the Country 170
Part 15 In the Fire 203
Part 16 Life in the Pen 230
Part 17 from: Not So, Boston 236
Part 18 from: La Vida 267
Part 19 from: The Arms Talks 278
Part 20 Celebration 304
Part 21 No, But I Saw the Game 325
Part 22 from: The Interior Stadium 347