Category: Sports
-
How We Write
Writing is physical. Writing is athletic. Writing requires the same discipline of a dedicated athlete in pursuit of peak performance. I note this, not to be repetitive, but as a corollary to my series on Little League and the trajectory of sports in life for me. These things are one and the same: the first…
-
Little League VI: The Wrap
Now spring has brought us out to baseball again. I’m coaching my sons. The last four years, I’ve coached my sons at baseball. Baseball always meant a lot to me, though I was neither the fastest nor the strongest nor the most reliable at the bat. Still, I know enough about the game, and enough…
-
Little League V: Ironman
Team sports weren’t for me. I didn’t compete again for a decade. Inspired by my brother, I picked up triathlon. I biked to work through the winter months in New York, swam at Brooklyn College after teaching, ran with the Roadrunners led by an aging postal worker. I competed in my first event in Tampa/St.…
-
Little League IV: ‘Glory’
There was nothing like pole vault. Our equipment was flawed: old fiberglass poles with no give. Coach knew nothing about it and left us to our own devices. Half a dozen guys tried. Sprint hard as we might, the pole didn’t budge. We climbed it like pillaging savages. Between stints climbing the pole—8 feet, 9…
-
Little League III: Pole Vault
I tried out for high school ball the following year. I hit longer, straighter flies than I had at tryouts the year before. The coach—who slept on a basement bed in the very apartment where I delivered my middle school coach’s newspaper—already knew the story. ‘He’ll hit in tryouts. Goose-egg during the season.’ Rated beneath…
-
Little League II: 0 for 12
My father ran bread routes for Wonder most mornings. He delayed the deliveries to throw me curves and fastballs when tryouts came around. He zeroed my hands and eyes, quickened my bat to the rawhide in the pre-dawn twilight. Confident still in the afternoon, I showed for tryouts with a quick bat and hit high,…
-
The Little League Coach
The calendar tells us that it’s spring. But last Monday, the night before the season’s first Little League practice, snow squalls filled the sky. Over the weekend the manager gathered us on a beautiful day for pizza and whiffle ball. Then our second practice got scrubbed for snow, a Nor’easter that eventually dumped half a…
-
This is what i do when i should be…
Books & News launches its maiden podcast “This is what i do when i should be…”, 15 minutes of banter about books, writing, and other stuff. This week Ben, Vikram, and Mohan discuss Roald Dahl’s Matilda in anticipation of a trip to the cinema to see The BFG and a future discussion of that book’s…
-
baseball and birthdays
Back in January my son asked me to write him a story for his birthday. Three months later I’ve put the finishing touches on a 32k-word novel, my first in the lit-for-kids line. Vikram turns 8 next week. Among the themes (friendship, family, dreams) is baseball. With MLB opening day upon us, I thought I’d share a chapter.…
Ben East Books 