Two Baseball Stories and Another
The Young Pitcher is the first of the Ken Ward books Zane Grey wrote. He modeled Ken after himself, as ZG was an exceptional baseball player, and the frantic episodes which actually occurred during the league play of the 1880s in Ohio when nearly every town of any size had its own team. Rivalry knew no borders and no bounds; it was "to the victor goes the spoils" no matter how you won, by hook or crook it didn't matter as long as your team won. Fans were really fanatics back then when it came to baseball and the home town. What actually prevented Zane Grey from becoming an even more successful pitcher was the change in distance from the mound to home-plate. After the change from 55 feet to 60 feet 6 inches Zane could never re-master his curve ball which was his stock and trade, so he was forced to go to the outfield and play; and he did quite well out in the field. His brother, Reddy, was a pro-player for a couple of years. This book relates many of his experiences as a player in the early year of baseball as told through the character Ken Ward. Any little leaguer would love this book. Perhaps if ZG's "books for boys" as these were called would be made available in school libraries today, our country and our world would be a better place to live. These books instill values still needed today. The Red-Headed Outfield is a collection of short stories about baseball as it was played in the last couple of decades of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th. They are actually fictionalized accounts of some of the adventures in baseball which Zane Grey found himself as he grew to adulthood in Ohio during the 1880s and 90s. Zane Grey loved baseball almost as much as he loved fishing, and he was an exceptional pitcher until the distance from the mound to homeplate was moved, and he could never re-perfect his curve ball afterwards. He starred for the University of Pennsylvania, and played semi-pro ball for several seasons while living in New York. These stories are about how much the game was loved and appreciated back then, and how every boy growing up during this time worshipped the players. These get to the heart of the game as it was. The "characters" who played and influenced the game, and the adventures and hi-jinx that prevailed; yet told as only Zane Grey could tell them. See and read the early work of a master as he writes about what he loves. These books for boys are not just for boys, but for anyone who loves a story about growing up. On the dust cover of the first printing of The Day of the Beast in 1922 it had these words in bold letters, NOT A WESTERN, as if to warn the potential buyer what they would be getting was not the usual Zane Grey fare, and most likely contributed to the low sales of the book. Harpers had no faith in this book, nor did ZG's wife, Dolly, who had urged him not to write it. But this was a book he HAD to write. He felt enormous sympathy for the returning soldier from WW1 and how they were treated medically and emotionally, especially those who returned from the battle field after the first rush of excitement and jubilation the first one's received. Those later returnees were offered no parades, no notice at all, becoming almost victims of the war. Added to this was Zane Grey's hatred of the way society was changing, particularly the morals and the general conduct he saw being displayed by the young women of the day--"The Roaring Twenties" we call it today. This is his protest against that age or time as seen through the eyes of a returning veteran, who does not have long to live. And yes, a lot of what he was protesting against, is still with us today. We never seem to learn as a society; history repeats itself. This book may seem dated, the use of language and its descriptive qualities have changed somewhat, but all in all this book does a good job in depicting what was happening in the country following WW1. The Day of the Beast will never be one of ZG's big sellers, and for years the ending left me wondering if he actually wrote the book this way; but I have come to know more about him as a person through my study of him as a writer and can now see what he was trying to say with this book. If you read this book for what it was intended, then you will not be disappointed. It is NOT A WESTERN, but a very readable and enjoyable book exposing what the author believed was grievous to society then, and by the way even today.
