Henry W Wiggen

From the very beginning of The Southpaw you know you are in for a treat. Just read the dedication to know why. Then, for further evidence, move on to the "Special Warning To All Readers!!!"
Henry Wiggen is a left handed pitcher reflecting on his career in baseball. Although Henry is obsessed with the game from the very beginning there is a real defining moment when, at sixteen, he replaces his father on the mound during a game against the Clowns. After that, he tries out and is subsequently signed to play for the New York Mammoths. During spring training in Florida Henry learns what its like to be a ballplayer in the big time - competition, women, egos. The only "criticism" I have of the book is that one must love baseball in order to really love The Southpaw. There is a lot of play by play action that can get a little tedious at times.… (más)

I was interested in whether this 1953 novel would hold up. For a few pages, it seemed that the perhaps overly naive first-person narration would not -- there's a lot of Huck Finn in Henry Wiggens, perhaps too much and unrealistically so. But that feeling passed, and though I thought there a bit too much describing of individual baseball games, a lot of the little themes of the book are treated with subtlety -- or at least without Wiggens being too heavy-handed about them (issues such as those of race, class, and the place of a ballplayer as an employee and as a celebrity). The novel remains one the the best baseball novels, and still rewards reading.… (más)