Book Review: Bottom Of The 33rd: Hope, Redemption and Baseball's Longest Game

     Is there such thing as too much baseball?  At its heart, this is the question “Bottom Of The 33^rd” tries to address.  When do we get too much of a good thing?  When do years of trying to turn playing a kid’s game into a career become too long?  At what point does waiting for a break through, whither that break though is a base hit or a single run or a major league call up or the publicity your minor league team desperately needs become tedious.  Dan Barry does a beautiful job framing this theme with the dozens of stories that made up the longest game in the history of baseball.  By turning a spot light on not just the game that would not end, but the plight of the players, managers, owners, and fans, Barry paints a wonderful story about not just baseball but what drives people, what lengths they’ll go to reach a goal and when it all just becomes too much.

            The book doesn’t answer the question directly but instead investigates when it becomes too much for each individual.  It addresses the issue both literally and figuratively through the many stories Barry has to tell about the games participants.  For many of the fans too much baseball came somewhere in the early hours of the morning as bitter cold made 20 innings of baseball to much to bear, but for a handful of others huddled in blankets on the cold bench seats 33 innings felt like just a start.  For many players 10 plus years of struggling in the minors is enough to realize they don’t have what it takes to fulfill their dreams, yet for others this still wasn’t enough to call it quits.  One of the funnier moments in the book comes when future Hall Of Famer, Wade Boggs, singles driving in the tying run in the bottom of the 21^st.  Boggs celebrates on second base because he prevented his team from losing while his teammates dejectedly slump on the bench in the dugout because he just kept the never ending game going.  A wonderful contrast between the desire to win at any cost and the devastating effects a war of attrition has on the psyche.

            There’s a good chance that I’m a little biased, after all I’m a huge Red Sox fan, I grew up going to games at McCoy Stadium, I own one (or ten) or the souvenir cups commemorating this game and there’s a good chance my grandfather was back up catcher Roger LaFrancois’ dad’s supervisor at Plastic Wire and Cable, but “Bottom Of The 33^rd” is written in such a way that even people who aren’t fans of baseball will enjoy it.  Instead of focusing on the intricacies of 33 innings of baseball, Barry decided to focus on the stories that surround it, making the book more about people then sports, turning is there such thing as too much baseball into is there such thing as too much of anything.  And there are plenty of interesting stories to be told, from the players on the field, some struggling to get that one big chance to play in the pros, others on their way to the Hall Of Fame, to the commentator/GM sitting in the broadcast booth, to the umpires who followed the letter of the law making the game last longer then it should, to the fans who spent Easter eve into Easter morning watching history.  “Bottom Of The 33^rd” is as much about community as it is baseball.

            Is there such thing as too much baseball?  I’d still like to say no.  I’d like to think I would be still sitting in those stands if I had to, but Dan Barry has come as close as anyone to making me think otherwise.  His stories hit you in the heart and force you to ask yourself, what would I do, all the while celebrating our national pastime, our sense of community and our desire to reach out dreams.  “Bottom Of The 33^rd” should go down as one of the best baseball books ever written.