33 H ome R un or S trike O ut? R eimagining baseball in P hilip R oth’ s G reat A merican N ovel and M ichael C habon’ s S ummerland M ike W itcombe M odern L anguages O ft- forgotten novels by otherwise celebrated authors, Philip R oth’ s T he G reat A merican N ovel ( 1973) and M ichael C habon’ s S ummerland(2003), are linked by their use of baseball to explore a vast array of mythologies and narratives. T he G reat A merican N ovel is written in the manner of an alternative history , in which an ageing sportswriter league . S ummerland , in contrast , shows an 11- year old boy entering into a fantasy world dominated by baseball- playing fairies in order to rescue his father from the clutches of the villainous C oyote . B aseball becomes the locus of meaning for both texts, tied to a perception of childhood that has remained critically underexplored. T he novels thus employ a sense of narrative playfulness to question whether the pursuit of baseball corrupts relationships with one’ s elders or enables them in R oth’ s book ends disastrously and C habon’ s ends well – an important point , given the comments that the authors have made about the sport of baseball itself . I n an early essay , R oth speaks of baseball as something connected to his childhood that has since been tarnished or lost . H e describes childhood memories of going with his father to watch the N ewark B ears play in nearby R uppert S tadium, a ‘ green wedge of pasture miraculously walled in among the factories.’ 1 R uppert B aseball S tadium , N ew J ersey ( photo by NJ B aseball , used with permission ). 1. P. R oth, R eading M yself and O thers (L ondon: Vintage, 2007), p.221 C habon has a similarly idealised nostalgic view, stating that despite the untimely demise of his father’ s team, the W ashington S enators, ‘ baseball is still a gift given by fathers to sons.’ 2 T he theme of patrimony motivates and drives the narratives of these novels. I n S ummerland , the 11- year old E than F eld is reunited with his father , forming a closer union which starts when E than expresses an interest in playing as a catcher , his father’ s old position. I n T he G reat A merican N ovel , the 1943 ‘R uppert M undys’ ( the focal characters of the text) have a single competent player , whose father has sent him to the team in a failed effort to teach him humility . I n both novels, and characters are frequently involved in futile T he B aal family in R oth’ s novel provides a representative example of such themes. B ase B aal , the eldest , is exiled for using rural baseball tactics by throwing the ball at his crotch. H is son, S pit attempting to deploy a urine- soaked baseball mid- game . F inally , we meet J ohn B aal , an ex- con who refuses to play sober and who is eventually exiled for supposed communist leanings. T heir mothers are barely mentioned at all ; indeed, most of the supposed ‘ mothers’ we meet in R oth’ s text are prostitutes. I n C habon’ s text , maternal absence becomes a repeated theme , and one which the central character confronts directly in a dream sequence close to the end of the book. T here is much in these novels that invites the reader not to take them too seriously . D espite this, both texts contain elaborate descriptions narrator of T he G reat A merican N ovel , regularly provides league tables, batting averages and score sheets, gently parodying baseball’ s love of statistics whilst providing ‘ evidence’ for his narrative . S ummerland 2. M. C habon, M anhood for A mateurs (L ondon: F ourth E state, 2009), p. 123