Baseball bibliophiles

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Word is Roger Angell, the de facto dean of the baseball writers' fraternity, is coming to town next week for a PEN New England benefit. The longtime New Yorker magazine scribe will be joined by John Updike, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Stephen King, and ''Moneyball" author Michael Lewis at the June 6 fund-raiser at Fenway's .406 Club. Sox GM Theo Epstein's dad, novelist and BU writing prof Leslie Epstein, is slated to be the evening's special guest.

BevVincent

A novel approach to the game

By CHAZ SCOGGINS, Sun Staff  



BOSTON -- What is it about the San Francisco Giants that makes them so attractive to the literary giants?



Baseball's appeal was a key topic for some of America's top writers and authors on a recent night at Fenway Park's .406 Club. Stephen King, John Updi-ke, Roger Angell, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Michael Lewis were on the panel, and host Leslie Epstein and author Dennis Lehane -- who was one of about 400 people in an audience that also included author and former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee -- also chimed in with their opinions.



Granted, it was a stacked deck. Most of the writers have strong ties to New England, which is not only the cradle of American literature but the birthplace of baseball. So it is little wonder that the art and the game are so intertwined for them.



Maine native Stephen King, one of the most popular authors in history, spent part of his early childhood in Stratford, Conn.



“On summer nights my mother would read to us, or we would listen to Dodger games on the radio,” he recalled. “My brother and I would play catch, and we would try to imitate what we were hearing on the radio.



“I remember my mother telling me that ‘Gone With the Wind' was 1,080 pages, and I asked her how any book could be that long. She said books can be as long as you want them to be. Baseball games are the same way. They can go into extra innings. None of those damn ties!”



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