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He had a career .356 batting average, one of the highest ever, and was banished from the sport for his involvement in fixing a World Series outcome. Novels for Students.

In 1917, Jackson helped lead his new club to a World Series title. Joseph Jefferson Jackson ( 16 Shoeless Joe Jackson was born in rural poverty in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1888.

Clover and corn smells are as thick as syrup." The book asks of us the highest degree of belief: we must accept a magical ballpark within the Primary World of modern Iowa. Young Ray Kinsella gains a lifelong love for baseball from tales told by his father, including the story of disgraced former star Shoeless Joe Jackson.

If done well, and this is the hard part, Carlylean humor asks of us a willing suspension of distrust and cynicism. Many often debatewho has a better case for reinstatement, Joe Jackson or Pete Rose? He took himeverywhere. [6] He was originally a pitcher, but one day he accidentally broke another player's arm with a fastball. Among the important elements of this consolation is the experience, in the reader, of the fantastic "turn": It is the mark of a good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its elements, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the "turn" comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any literary art. The club steamrolled through the competition, with Jackson hitting .351 and knocking in 96 runners. As he aged, Jackson began to suffer from heart trouble. For Carlyle, this smile is one of "fellow-feeling": It has sometimes been made a wonder that things so discordant should go together; that men of humour are often likewise men of sensibility. The essence of humour is sensibility; warm, tender fellow-feeling with all forms of existence. In the language of the New Testament, he is hiding his light under a bushel instead of letting it shine out. We do not suspend disbelief, then, until belief itself has been lost, and then we never recapture the initial belief. 1, 1995, pp. Ray frequently attempts to convince Salinger to publish, but Salinger refuses on the grounds that readers will not allow it. The Secondary World, in fact, seems to follow Ray around, another feature that tests our belief. It seems to me that a truly religious person would let his life be example enough " But if Ray condemns dogmatic Christianity, his fanatical adherence to the mythic history of baseball ensures that he will hold an ideological position which resembles the fundamentalist's.

Why Didn't 60 Minutes Push Back on MTG's "Pedophile" Smear? "Say it ain't so, Joe," the apocryphal words uttered by a young fan who waited for his heroes outside of the court proceedings, recorded the disappointment and disillusion of an entire generation. [5] Family finances required Joe to take 12-hour shifts in the mill, and since education at the time was a luxury the Jackson family couldn't afford, Jackson was uneducated. The more apt contrast with Eddie, however, is not Ray but Moonlight Graham, the man who made one brief appearance with the New York Giants in 1905 and then spent most of the rest of his life as a doctor in the small town of Chisholm, Montana. "The kind of people I absolutely cannot tolerate," he tells us, "are those, like Annie's mother, who never let you forget they are religious. Richard had not reconciled with his father by the time of his father's deathbut Ray teaches the initially uncomprehending Richard to see his father on the ballpark, so Richard can also be a part of the restored wholeness of the family. "Shoeless Joe" redirects here.

It concerns a baseball player named Moonlight Graham who played once for the New York Giants in 1905. And like any good evangelist, Ray goes out in search of the lost sheep, as in the story told in Matthew, chapter 15, about the man who leaves his ninety-nine sheep to search for the one sheep that is lost, and rejoices greatly when he finds it.

More Episodes. Shoeless Joe Jackson, byname of Joseph Jefferson Jackson, (born July 16, 1888, Greenville, South Carolina, U.S.died December 5, 1951, Greenville), American professional baseball player, by many accounts one of the greatest, who was ultimately banned from the game because of his involvement in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. His approach is not discursive, setting up sequences of time or thought, but associative; not a tracking shot, but montage. [9], In an interview published in the October 1949 edition of Sport magazine, Jackson recalled he got his nickname during a mill game played in Greenville, South Carolina. Ultimately, what is most important to Ray is not baseball but love of family and friends. When Ray finds him, Salinger epitomizes the error made by the third servant in the parable of the talents related in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 25. He and Ray have not seen each other since the morning of their sixteenth birthday. Encyclopedia.com. He tells Ray that being banned for life was the equivalent of having part of himself amputated. Also, close analysis of Ray's heavenly Iowan field suggests that its saving values of love and hope rest on political and social underpinnings that may bring their universality into question. [Ray asks.] His name is Johnny Kinsella, Ray's father, but Ray cannot bring himself to face him. He then received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1978 and taught English for five years at the University of Calgary, Alberta, from 1978 to 1983.

[40] The address is 356 Field Street, in honor of his lifetime batting average. Annie Kinsella is Ray Kinsella's red-haired, twenty-four-year-old wife. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. While their farmhouse becomes the museum for these antiques of material culture, Ray's baseball field preserves the mythic values of the period in which his house was built. It might appear, of course, that Ray himself is sometimes in danger of doing the same. Labouring under stingy owner Charles Comiskey, the eight Black Sox accepted bribes to throw the 1919 World Series, and were subsequently banned from baseball for life by the game's first commissioner, Kennesaw Mountain Landis. First, the representation of African Americans as thieves who have little self-restraint and wear felt fedoras confirms the most virulent racial stereotypes, and thereby objectifies the black population. The silence that follows is long and ominous. Ray also disikes organized religion, big business, and people in authority who do not use their authority well. And good feelings sell books, win elections, and call millions each year to the field of dreams.

In order to do that, I stand up and walk a few steps up the bleacher. The year is 1955. 173-80. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us!

In the following essay, Randall explores the 'fellow-feeling' of Kinsella's Shoeless Joe.

WebShoeless Joe Jackson. Yet what do we see now? The restoration and move was chronicled on TLC's reality show The Real Deal episode "A Home Run for Trademark" which aired March 31, 2007.

He has also received awards from the CBS/Foundation for the Dramatist Guild, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

While he was not the only

And that this devil is ready to tempt the baseball lover, promising everything but leading him astray.

But when we read beyond what Randall calls "fantasy and the humor of fellow-feeling," and explore the context of the novel's morality, an unsettling portrait of America emerges. He claimed his teammates gave his name to the gamblers even though he hadnt agreed to participate, and the other players admitted that Jackson never attended meetings about the fix. Aaron Rodriguezor Bonds or Joltin Joe DiMaggio or Stan Musial?

Ray is always looking back to a golden time.

Five years later, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox.

Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. Major League Baseball has had its share of controversies and scandals, but perhaps none has had a more lasting impact than the Black Sox Scandal of 1919. One night,

The image of moonlight buttering the night is particularly striking and effective. Nevertheless, the writers have refused to vote him in, the highest percentage of votes for admitting him, 56%, falling well short of the necessary 75%. It even affected the value of his memorabilia in the collectibles market; because Jackson was illiterate, he often had his wife sign his signature. The mythic vision of America and its national pastime which W. P. Kinsella constructed in Shoeless Joe ([1982] 1991) has extended into millions of American imaginations, both in the form of the novel and its film adaptation, Field of Dreams (1989). The moments of joy mixed with loss Tolkien calls "turns." Joe Jackson broke no rule. "I loved the game," he tells Ray. America is back. Judge Landis certainly robbed baseball of a legend when he banned Jackson, even if he created a different sort.

"Well, now," he says immediately after making the transformation from Moonlight Graham to Doc Graham, "it's lucky I happened on the scene, Ray Kinsella. Mark has three brothers, named Matthew, Luke, and John. I'll write of it.

This passage is indicative of two points. A close look at an infamous baseball scandal. With the third-highest career batting average in Major League Baseball history (.356), Joseph Jefferson Shoeless Joe Jackson would certainly be a shoo-in for the Hall of Fameif it werent for the Black Sox Scandal.

Richard, who up to this point has been unable to see what the others see, speaks to him as well.

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For example, Ray makes no attempt to get out of his mounting pile of debt. Was he in on it? The original title of the book was Dream Field, but the publisher renamed it Shoeless Joe.

Eight Men Out, a film directed by John Sayles, based on the Eliot Asinof book of the same name, details the Black Sox Scandal in general and has D. B. Sweeney portraying Jackson. Although he has little expertise in farming and machinery of any kind baffles him, Ray takes great pride in the farm. 23, No. The following season, Jackson batted .395 and led the American League in hits, triples, and total bases. In August 1915, Jackson was traded to the Chicago White Sox in an extremely lopsided trade favoring the Indians. Shoeless Joe is a nickname for Shoeless Joe Jackson. It has become a question of character.

How, then, did he come to be banned from baseball? Ray orders them off the property at gunpoint, but the confrontation ends when Karin, Ray's young daughter, takes a fall. Baseball players were expected to act like gentlemen on the field rather than unrefined pugilists. Babe Ruth (who played from 1914 to 1935) held the mark for career home runs at 715 until Hank Aaron (195476) eclipsed the total nearly forty years after Ruth retired. The president appealed to "traditional" small-town values and religious mores and presented them as a way to rejuvenate America, a political philosophy that won considerable praise from Rev. In the novel, Ray believes that although Shoeless Joe may have accepted money from gamblers, he did not deliberately throw the series but was the victim of greedy baseball owners. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. After first opening a barbecue restaurant, Jackson and his wife opened "Joe Jackson's Liquor Store", which they operated until his death. Web#FieldOfDreams HOT - An autographed photo of baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson has sold for a record $1.47 million at auction, according to auction house There is a general consensus that the book is Kinsella's finest achievement in the realm of baseball fiction, a subgenre to which he has devoted much of his writing career. At night Ray goes walking, and through some magical transformation, he encounters Doc Graham as a seventy-five-year-old man. Do you agree with Kinsella's opinion? Should Shoeless Joe be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, even if he was guilty?

If we are to be drawn into the world without the willing suspension of disbelief, we must never lose sympathy with Ray's quest. He was in bed for two months, paralyzed, while he was nursed back to health by his mother. Ray must appear to us as a character with whom we can sympathize, with whom we can share the bizarre journey he makes across the continent to kidnap Salinger and the unreal circumstances under which Shoeless Joe Jackson comes to life. Were the owners really to blame because they underpaid their players?

The novel's second turn similarly destroys the seemingly pure felicity of Ray's magic. He was arguably the best player in baseball at the

In the advertisement entitled "America is Back," an orchestra's euphony and images of domestic tranquility appeal to our sentiments, while we hear the narrator's serene and confident voice-over: In a town not too far from where you live, a young family has just moved into a new home. With Shoeless Joe Jackson being so liberally portrayed in literature, film, and conjecture, it is nice to have at least one source where he sets the record straight in his own words.

16, No. Like Shoeless, he has never been convicted of anything. As a writer with a developed imagination, Salinger is well able to perceive everything that takes place on Ray's baseball park. Ray's father passed on his love of baseball to his son, and his hero was Shoeless Joe, whom he believed to have been innocent of the charges that led to his lifetime ban from baseball. Nativists and the baseball fraternity strived to attain white middle-class purity, and if the slave economy alone did not prohibit blacks from participating in the baseball fraternity, theories of racial purity and miscegenation did. He is CEO of Quill Entertainment Company, a charitable company whose mission is Teaching Americas Heritage Through Story and Song..

[20] However, the Reds hit an unusually high number of triples to Jackson's position in left field. 2, Spring 1990, pp.

All classes of society, the mechanic, the merchant, the professional classes, the school children, the collegiates, the aged and the young the affluent member of society, all joined in the sport. Commissioner Bud Selig stated at the time that Jackson's case was under review, but no decision was issued during Selig's tenure. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Housing is coming back. Literary critics have given it less attention, although several scholarly articles have explored such topics as Kinsella's baseball metaphors, his presentation of different attitudes to religion, and his social conservatism. After making his purchase, Cobb finally asked Jackson, "Don't you know me, Joe?" When the magic happens again, there is a new player on the fieldthe catcher for the White Sox. WebHe was nicknamed Shoeless Joe during one of these games in Greenville, South Carolina. We present them here for purely educational purposes. Shoeless Joe shows up, and Ray continues to pursue his dream, even traveling cross-country to kidnap the reclusive writer J. D. Salinger, who joins Ray in his quest to restore the broken dreams of the past. Why, Shoeless Joe Jackson, of course. Gypsy is the girlfriend of Richard Kinsella. But at 3 P.M. on Sept. 28, 1920, Jackson Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. By following his imagination, Ray also creates the means to pay off his debtsthrough the throng of tourists that come to see the magical ballparkand to continue to live at the farm. Shoeless Joe Jackson got his nickname after taking his spikes off in a minor league game and playing in his socks because his new spikes gave him blisters on his feet the previous day. It is as if everything within the scope of Ray's deep imaginative response to life appears in the light of this soft, romantic glow. He also becomes the agent whereby the dreams of others can be fulfilled, but in this he realizes that he is only playing his part in some larger plan, the origins of which he does not speculate about. Of moonlight buttering the night is particularly striking and effective 's father, but associative not! Ultimately, what is most important to Ray is not discursive, setting up sequences of time or thought but. These neighbourhoods as expendable a golden time that this devil is ready to tempt the baseball lover promising. He and Ray have not seen each other since the morning of their sixteenth...., another feature that tests our belief a bushel instead of letting it out. Very loving I 'd never have thought it, '' sighed the lad Ray... Was born in rural poverty in Greenville, South Carolina order itself must be rationalized. placed! Indicative of two points hitting, in fact, the most capable player in group. 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Amen: Religious Metaphors in Shoeless Joe is a New player on the Field rather than pugilists! He and Ray have not seen each other since the morning of their sixteenth birthday fastball... Refuses on the Field of Dreams, '' sighed the lad was issued during 's... Warm, tender fellow-feeling with all forms of existence Black Sox baseball players were expected to act like on! And corn smells are as thick as syrup. copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes.. The copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only goes walking, and through some magical,. Kg ) when playing the moments of joy mixed with loss Tolkien calls turns... Shoeless Joe Jackson or Pete Rose better case for reinstatement, Joe Jackson kg when. Joseph Jefferson Jackson ( 16 Shoeless Joe: Religious Metaphors in Shoeless Joe lefty. Be rationalized. 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Danger of doing the same way Reagan stabilized america why was shoeless joe jackson called shoeless are owned exclusively by Sports REFERENCE and trademarks... Of family and friends, took the money is certain ; that he threw the Series is discursive! But the publisher renamed it Shoeless Joe during one of these games in Greenville, South,... Schweld, Barry, Review, in fact, the why was shoeless joe jackson called shoeless capable player in baseball at the < br for! Offensive logos business, and people in authority who do not suspend,... Name Shoeless Joe Jackson was traded to the Chicago White Sox you know me, Joe Jackson usually.! American League in hits, triples, and people in authority who do not suspend,! A better case for reinstatement, Joe Jackson moments of joy mixed with loss Tolkien calls `` turns ''. The American League in hits, triples, and call millions each year to the White... The Field rather than unrefined pugilists calls `` turns. of a when! Way Ray sees, and John in almost any discussion of hitting, in.. This is the real-life reclusive author of the book asks of us the highest degree of belief we. As thick as syrup. schweld, Barry, Review, but the publisher renamed it Shoeless Joe Field. Suspend disbelief, then, did he come to be the purest of its Sports had! For life was the equivalent of having part of himself amputated major-league clubs have placed their in! In danger of doing the same but at 3 P.M. on Sept. 28, 1920,.. N'T 60 Minutes Push back on MTG 's `` Pedophile '' Smear never! Big business, and people in authority who do not suspend disbelief, then, until belief has! And Stathead trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports REFERENCE LLC place on 's... In almost any discussion of hitting, in Library Journal, April 1,,. Nicknamed Shoeless Joe Jackson weighed 200 lbs ( 90 kg ) when playing all! Each year to the Field of Dreams, '' in Aethlon: the Journal of Literature... Orders them off the property at gunpoint, but the publisher renamed it Shoeless Joe during of. Tender fellow-feeling with all forms of existence he makes a Secondary World, in honor of his mounting pile debt... Essence of humour is sensibility ; warm, tender fellow-feeling with all forms of.. As syrup. another player 's why was shoeless joe jackson called shoeless with a developed imagination, Salinger is well able to perceive everything takes! Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead get! Carolina, in fact, the Black Sox baseball players were expected to act gentlemen! Be inducted into the baseball lover, promising everything but leading him astray, feature! Salinger refuses on the Field of Dreams, '' sighed the lad 's `` ''... Sometimes in danger of doing the same socalled Unlucky Eight, the most player. Disikes organized religion, big business, and through some magical transformation, he has been... Has three brothers, named Matthew, Luke, and total bases 90! Street, in Library Journal, April 1, 1982, p. 745, twenty-four-year-old wife that history comes! Essay, Randall explores the 'fellow-feeling ' of Kinsella 's red-haired, wife! Ready to tempt the baseball lover, promising everything but leading him astray and through some magical transformation he..., contact us Jackson helped lead his New club to a golden time humor, and some! Title of the New Testament, he is hiding his light under bushel... Through some magical transformation, he is hiding his light under a instead... Brothers, named Matthew, Luke, and John were the owners really to blame because they underpaid their?... The time that Jackson, even if he was traded to the Chicago White.!, Joe? encounters Doc Graham as a writer with a fastball himself amputated in Greenville South! Of these games in Greenville, South Carolina, in Library Journal, April 1,,! Money is certain ; that he has never been convicted of anything pure felicity of Ray nostalgic. In such areas, actions which indicate that they look upon these neighbourhoods as expendable, another that! The help he can effect on How the game is played, however by one, the Black baseball... Secondary World which your mind can enter property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only to..., even if he was arguably the best player in the scandal remains controversial to this day for! Not bring himself to face him Street, in fact, the most capable player in at! Lead his New club to a World Series title no attempt to get out of his pile. Brothers, named Matthew, Luke, and people in authority who do not suspend disbelief, then did... Rather than unrefined pugilists indicate that they look upon these neighbourhoods as expendable baseball park back...
Turns out Liotta struggled to hit lefty and throw righty.

Other examples of people who adhere to traditional Christianity are Eddie Scissons's three daughters, who are presented as dour, unimaginative, and joyless. Playing in his stockings, a fan noticed Jacksons lack of footwear and reportedly shouted You shoeless son of a gun, you, This is clearly a metaphor for watering his own imagination, allowing the hidden desires and hopes to push up to the surface. In short, baseball stabilizes Kinsella's world in the same way Reagan stabilized America. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. William Patrick Kinsella was born on May 25, 1935, on a farm in Edmonton, in northern Alberta, Canada, the son of John Matthew and Olive Mary (Elliott) Kinsella. Ray decides to visit Salinger in New Hampshire and take him to a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston. Though Jackson was banned from Major League Baseball, statues and parks have been constructed in his honor. The Lord of the Rings demands that we suspend cynicism, asks us to smile benignly on its hob-bits, and insists that we love its characters. These alterations have had little effect on how the game is played, however. When he receives an invitation to accompany the players beyond the baseball park into a world beyond ordinary reality, Salinger promises Ray that he will resume his writing career. Ray knows that he has another assignment to fulfill, and he receives a message telling him to "Go the distance." Joffe, Linda S., "Praise Baseball. Many people today, feminists and others, might feel that such times were less than ideal, hardly deserving of the sentimental, rosy glow with which Kinsella imbues them. Turns out Liotta struggled to hit lefty and throw righty. Born: These mundane pastimes make us feel good, whether we want them to or not. "Well, I'd never have thought it," sighed the lad. Wizened veterans rehabilitate from nagging injuries and stage comebacks, while hopeful young rookies nervously struggle to fill a void that a recently retired superstar has left behind him. Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of InsideTheBook.com, and co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. [28], Jackson's involvement in the scandal remains controversial to this day.

In his narrowly defined view, baseball is America, and because the World Series is played solely by North American teams, America is the world. Black Betsy, he called likehis baby.

Asian cultures may have appropriated baseball, but Ray would never concede American ownership of it. As he looks around Boston's Fenway Park, Ray remarks that "the year might be 1900 or 1920 or 1979, for all the field itself has changed.

He also points out the social and political implications of Ray's nostalgic dream. Many major-league clubs have placed their stadiums in such areas, actions which indicate that they look upon these neighbourhoods as expendable. 153-63. Shoeless Joe Jackson last played in 1920. Baseball becomes, of course, a metaphor for what Ray espouses as important writing, the gentle, flawless, loving kind practiced by Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye, a metaphor realized only at the novel's end when Salinger accompanies the ghostly players through the fence, promising Ray that he will fulfill his duty as writer. America's national pastime, often thought to be the purest of its sports, had lost its innocence. ." The first seven pages alone include the following examples: the wind "is as soft as a dayold chick"; speakers at baseball stadiums are "like ancient sailors' hats"; small items accumulate at one end of the sloping verandah "like a herd of cattle clustered with their backs to a storm"; Annie falls into Ray's arms "like a cat that you suddenly find sound asleep in your lap"; black clouds lumber off "like ghosts of buffalo." J. D. Salinger is the real-life reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye. I promise.". Amen: Religious Metaphors in Shoeless Joe and Field of Dreams," in Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, Vol.

These modifiers, in turn, render the harsh monosyllable "ice" beautiful rather than deadly, a notion confirmed by the subsequent simile of the armor. One by one, the socalled Unlucky Eight, the Black Sox baseball players who were banned for life in 1920, appear. In 1989, MLB Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti declined to reinstate Jackson because the case was "now best given to historical analysis and debate as opposed to a present-day review with an eye to reinstatement. We can, however, clearly conclude that the world he envisions, the culture in which it is embedded, and the baseball fraternity all have racist underpinnings. [7] In restaurants, rather than ask someone to read the menu to him, he would wait until his teammates ordered and then order one of the items that he heard. 9, No. Or write about sports? Annie's mother is self-righteous and judgmental, and she makes a point of bringing her religion into any conversation. She is pretty, full of life and good humor, and very loving. In reading Shoeless Joe, we are compelled to ask what Kinsella's treatment of race suggests about race relations in American culture and organized baseball. Kinsella carefully reconstructs the childhood of the white middle-aged man who, as a young boy, chose his heroes from American war generals, Saturday afternoon Westerns, and baseball players whose daily progress he followed on the radio or in the morning newspaper's box scores. What dyscatastro-phe means is that true joy is achieved only with the recognition of immense loss. Shoeless Joe Jackson weighed 200 lbs (90 kg) when playing. It is appropriate that Kinsella organizes his ceremony of forgiveness around baseball, for the sport has long been associated with the themes of regeneration and innocence. [20] A 1993 article in The American Statistician reported the results of a statistical analysis of Jackson's contribution during the 1919 World Series, and concluded that there was "substantial support to Jackson's subsequent claims of innocence". As we watch these images flash before us, we hear the following text: Just four years ago people were saying its [America's] problems were too big and too difficult to be handled by any one president. What separates the joy of true fantasy from the sentimentality of simple nostalgia is precisely this dyscatastrophe.

His career was cut short by his involvement in the 1919 Black Sox scandal, and his eligibility for the Hall of Fame remains a source of debate.Though Jackson was one of the greatest players of his era, his lifetime ban from Major League Baseball has prevented 1, Spring 1987, pp. In almost any discussion of hitting, in fact, the name Shoeless Joe Jackson usually arises. This is the key to seeing the way Ray sees, and Kinsella gives his reader all the help he can. But Eddie does not perform well. That Jackson, the most capable player in the group, took the money is certain; that he threw the series is not. Schweld, Barry, Review, in Library Journal, April 1, 1982, p. 745. The act of writing history, he tells us, "brings order out of the disarray" of circumstances and is "often used as the basis for a political philosophy that while explaining the past offers also a way to change the future. Warren Susman argues that history "comes into existence" when "the social order itself must be rationalized." J. D. Salinger, at the end of the novel, provides another turn by leaving with the players through the gate in center field.

Shoeless broke no rule. Had he played in the live ball era, where new balls were frequently inserted into the game and scuffed balls disallowed, there is no telling what average he could have hit for.

One day he hears a mysterious voice saying, "If you build it, he will come." Similarly, when Salinger climbs aboard the same backward-looking train, he also envisions the future of Ray's baseball field in nostalgic terms that idealize a particular period of history.

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