[ARETE] Playing Catch

[Duncan Jamieson]

All,
Please find attached and below

A Year of Playing Catch by Ethan D. Bryan (Zondervan Books, 2020, 226 pages)

Reviewed by Robert Hamblin

Given that so much of the writing about baseball these days treats such
troubling issues as race, protests, COVID19, labor disputes, and cheating,
it’s a real delight to read a book about the simple joy of playing catch.
But Ethan D. Bryan’s A Year of Playing Catch is about much more than
baseball.  As Bryan explains, the exercise “transformed into an adventure
all about people, an adventure of creating strong memories with family and
friends new and old” (95).

    On New Year’s Day, 2018, after a short game of catch with his two
daughters, Bryan hit upon the novel idea of playing catch with someone
every day of the year, all 365 days.  The commitment led him to travel
12,000  miles through 10 states and introduced him to some fascinating
individuals and their personal stories, both heartwarming and sad.

    Bryan’s partners in catch were family members, friends, and
strangers—young and old, male and female, athletes and non-athletes,
able-bodied and physically challenged.   He traveled with his dad to
Dyersville, Iowa, to play catch on the Field of Dreams.  He played catch
with a high school classmate in memory of their favorite English teacher
and with a young girl who is afflicted with a rare genetic disorder.  Other
partners included Bill Virdon, the longtime major league player and
manager; Scott Bailes, a nine-year MLB pitcher; Mary Moore, a former player
in the All-American  Girls Professional Baseball League (a.k.a. “A League
of Their Own”); Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball
Museum; Jim Morris, whose major league pitching career became the basis for
the popular movie, The Rookie; Little Bear, a teenaged star pitcher for the
touring Beijing Shougang Eagles softball team; Crystal Quade, a Missouri
state representative; and Rick Grayson, a successful PGA teaching
professional. (An appendix to the book lists all 530 participants and dates
of the sessions).

    The conversations and interactions with his catch partners gave Bryan
valuable insights into such subjects as diversity, parenting, education,
religion, art, music, and disabilities, as well as sports.  One of those
insights deals with the importance of play in our daily lives.  As Bryan
notes, we all need to strive at “creating space for fun to celebrate life
with others, stepping away from the screens and constant bombardment of
stress and pressure and online vitriol between strangers over every single
topic” (135).  He adds, “Play is an audacious act of hope.  In a world that
is driven by the bottom line and uber-efficiency, play loudly challenges
everyone not to take themselves so seriously.  Play breathes into our
broken world and extends an invitation to join the present beauty” (66).

    Another important lesson relates to the benefits of setting goals and
working hard to achieve them.  To complete his year-long quest, Bryan had
to play catch in winter wind chills near zero, triple-digit summer heat,
and occasionally pouring rain.  Scheduling—and sometimes
re-scheduling—presented a constant challenge to keep his string of
consecutive days intact.  But in the process he found wisdom that he could
now direct to others:  “To push themselves to an extreme, to the edge of
suffering, to see what they can learn about life and themselves. . . To
experience the cathartic joy of doing something hard and seeing it to
completion” (72).

A Year of Playing Catch is an uplifting and inspirational book, written in
an engaging, conversational style.  I think I’ll locate my old glove and a
ball and go play catch with a friend.
Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past

Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.
Professor of History
Book Review Editor
*AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature*
Ashland University
Ashland, OH  44805
USA
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