Frank O’Rourke. The Heavenly World Series. Ed. Edith Carlson O’Rourke. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2002. Print.

This. Is. Real. Baseball. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. You grind it out for a long season till you cannot keep up. I do not believe anyone presents baseball in a more realistic manner than Frank O’Rourke did. For the love of the game, read this book.

I was nine when I read a novel by O’Rourke called Flashing Spikes. I had read a lot of books about baseball as a kid, but they fell into one of two categories. Either they were hagiographies for kids that told about famous players, or they were lighthearted unrealistic fiction pieces like The Kid Who Batted 1.000. (I am not counting Golden Books like Rootie Kazootie.) Flashing Spikes was different. The main character was young minor league player who had good days and bad days and really lived a pretty ordinary life except that he thought he might have a chance playing professional baseball. I do not remember whether the book had a happy or sad ending, but even at the tender age of nine I said to myself, That is the way baseball really is.

The Heavenly World Series is a collection of short stories by O’Rourke published between 1946 and 1955. All have a contemporary setting, though in some cases the characters reminisce about the twenties and thirties. Many of the stories treat the game or the season as a conflict. The best like “The Impossible Play” and “One More Inning” focus on players and managers who know both their skills and their limits and win by outsmarting or surprising the opponent. Some of the characters in losing situations retain their noble qualities because they have the long view of baseball and of life.

The final two stories “The Catcher” and “The Manager” are two of the best. Both focus on the internal and administrative conflicts that affect men who may know their stuff but are not given a fair chance. But isn’t a lot of baseball like that? And isn’t a lot of life like that, too?

The short story which gives the collection its title is the single story that is completely different. “The Heavenly World Series” is lighthearted fun. Some time around 1950 the baseball players in heaven start arguing about whether the National or the American League is better. The Lord decides to have an all-star World Series in heaven to settle the quarrel. The story has a Hall of Fame cast—though the series almost does not get underway because not enough professional umpires were admitted through the Pearly Gates…You get the idea.

At times I have joked that baseball is the only major team sport that will be in heaven. All the others—football, soccer, basketball, rugby—are timed, and there is no time in eternity. And, well, it looks like the heavenly World Series may last an eternity as well.

There is a short story in the collection titled “Flashing Spikes.” I believe the narrator is the same person who is the main character of the novel by the same name. I do not believe it is a story that is told in the novel, but it has been fifty years since I read it, so forgive me if my memory is a little hazy. In the short story a college player happens to recognize an old-timer in a barnstorming game as a former major leaguer who still loved the game and wanted to play. “Flashing Spikes” appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1948, the same year the Flashing Spikes novel came out, so there is no doubt a connection. It reminded me of the classic short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne “The Gray Champion” in its respect for history, tradition, and people who pass their skills and values on to the next generation.

While some of the stories in The Heavenly World Series have sandlot and minor league settings, the majority are set in the majors. O’Rourke creates teams like the Blues and the Eagles, but they play real teams. He seems to often choose the New York Giants as opponents in these stories, so we read about the characters playing against Willie Mays, Monte Irvin, Sal Maglie, with manager Leo Durocher. There may be an element of whimsy, but the core and the root of baseball comes through.