Guide to Baseball Short Stories: N
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- Nad, Elsa S. "Pieces of Eighty." Aethlon 22.1 (Fall 2004): 33-40. Old folks' home fields a team of octogenarians who play baseball by customized and largely improvised rules.
- Nau, Dennis. "Scoring Position." Aethlon 24.2 (Spring/Summer 2007): 21-30. A grandfather looks back at a life and marriage interwoven with baseball and softball, ever since he and his wife met as umpires of each other's games.
- Needham, Henry Beach. "The Jinx." In The Double Squeeze (1914). Repr. Strecker. Ace pitcher feels his arm go dead; fearing the worst, he asks to be buried under the pitcher's mound.
Has potential for quite an edge, but ultimately cops out.
- Nemec, David. "Browning's Lamps." Twilight Zone Magazine (June 1982): 23-34. Repr. Bjarkman. A sportswriter uncovers a legendary pinch-hitter, becomes convinced that the hitter's eyes are the secret to his success, and proceeds to have the eyes transplanted into his own head . . .
Raunchy and funny magical-realist story that succeeds through headlong inventiveness. ![]()
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- Neugeboren, Jay. "The Zodiacs." Translatlantic Review (Spring 1966). In Corky's Brother (New York: Farrar, 1969). Repr. Bjarkman. An unathletic Brooklyn kid becomes general manager of a playground team.
Good local-color baseball story. ![]()
- Newhouse, Edward. "Walter Schlesinger." In Anything Can Happen. Repr. Lewis. Sketch of an abusive, embittered fan.
- Nicholson, Scott. "The Vampire Shortstop." Writers of the Future 15 (1999). Repr. Kinsella. In a world where the undead consort routinely with the living, a youth-league coach welcomes a child of the night onto his team.
- Norris, Frank. "This Animal of a Buldy Jones." 1897. Repr. Strecker. American art student in Paris fights a duel with weapons of his choice: the baseballs from his greatest college pitching feat.
Clever story, full of youth and panache. ![]()
- Norris, Hoke. "Voo and Doo." Orig. publ. as "Voo Doo," Georgia Review 1968. Repr. Holtzman. A veteran utility player reveals the secret of his newly-found success--he is riding on the coat-tails of a dazzling identical-twin battery that is tearing up the league.
An odd mix of themes, including identity, magic, rural local color, and reflexive meditation on the cliches of baseball writing.
- Nowlin, Bill. "Kicking In." In Further Fenway Fiction. Fanatic Red Sox fan dies in a fit of despair on October 16th, 2004.
