Guide to Baseball Short Stories: V
Back to the Short Story index page
- Van Belkom, Edo. "Baseball Memories." Aethlon, 1989 . Repr. Kinsella. Fan stocks his brain with so much baseball trivia that something has to give.
Quirky idea, well-executed.
- Van Belle, James G. "Say Hello to Julio Garcia." Aethlon 15.2 (Spring 1998): 37-46. Meditations on urban discontents in Spokane mingle with the narrator's memories of an old minor-league teammate.
Odd story that mixes surrealism and Boys Life-turned-bittersweet motifs; worth reading. ![]()
- Van Loan, Charles. "His Own Stuff." In Score by Innings (1919). Repr. Silverman. Practical joker wears out his welcome, then is hoist by his own petard.
Lardneresque story that is much gentler than anything the master would have written.
- Van Loan, Charles. "Mathewson, Incog." Baseball Magazine (1911). Repr. Strecker. Manager of a town team enlists a tall blond pitcher on busman's holiday.
Very interesting as a repository of little details about the way the game was played in small towns a century ago.
- Van Loan, Charles. "Mister Conley." In Score by Innings (1919). Repr. Herzberg. A fresh busher gets on the nerves of veteran players, who ostracize him; ultimately, he plays hurt in a World Series game, and even though he is the "goat" in the game, the act of playing hurt endears him to the older players.
If that's a confusing ideology, well, it's an old-fashioned athletic creed, and this is an old-fashioned story. While it doesn't rise to the linguistic or literary level of Ring Lardner, this story is better than most of the adult baseball fiction by Van Loan's other contemporaries. ![]()
- Van Wert, William F. "The Purl Stitch." Aethlon 12.2 (Spring 1995): 135-143. A woman muses about her long marriage as she accompanies her octogenarian husband to a baseball game for the first time.
Decent fiction about a spectator's experience.
- Vaughn, Michael J. "The Redemption of Billy Saddle." Slow Trains 3.4 (Spring 2004). A Bartman-like figure, years after his gaffe has cost his favorite team a pennant, gets another chance on the softball fields of the Pacific Northwest.
- Vlcek-Scamahorn, Eileen. "Rain Delay Alternate Broadcast." Aethlon 17.2 (Spring 2000): 93-99. Community-college English teachers get through the dog days with the help of Anaheim Angels baseball and its attendant griefs.
Nicely observed setting and true-to-life dynamics.
- Von Euw, Michelle. "Rain Delay." In Further Fenway Fiction. Teen Red Sox fan accompanies a young admirer to a rainy game at Fenway.
