I’m still working on getting through “Nothing Finer.” It’s going, and we’re finally getting to a few names I recognize. I’m currently still in the second section on baseball, so, of course, Babe ruth showed up. I do like learning about the historical aspects of the game, and the inserted quotes from old newspaper accounts. Evidently, it’s largely believed that baseball was brought to North Carolina by way of the Salisbury POW camp during the Civil War. Union soldiers would play the “New York game” during time outdoors, and the game spread from there. After the war, mill towns popped up, and soon this towns had baseball teams that played by “New York rules.”

There’s a particular story I enjoyed about an early sportswriter with the last name Bisher. This kid (he literally was a kid) became a sort of expert in the rules of the game. One day he wasn’t allowed to go to the ballpark to watch the game until he mowed the lawn. During the game he was missing, a disagreement occurred about a call, and one of the teams suggested that they (including the umpire) go ask Bisher since he knew the rules forward and backward, and that’s what they did. There’s still no account of what caused the disagreement, as Bisher wasn’t present.

The reading is going slow, but I’m making progress and learning some tidbits along the way. And since I didn’t want to dog-ear the pages, I’m using a trusty equal packet as my bookmark.

In the meantime, I’ve selected the next Kindle book that I’ll be reading:

“The Line” by J.D. Horn is the first book in a series called “Witching Savannah.” I have pretty high hopes for this book. I love the look of the cover, and I’m a big fan of series. For the sake of this blog, I’m not going to immediately go out and by the other two remaining novels, but I will probably come back to them. The back cover promises a captivating Southern Gothic fantasy with modern flare, so we’ll see if it lives up to the hype. As the series title suggests, this book is about a family of witches, and the main character, Mercy, being the only one born without powers. I’m a fan of fantasy books, so I’m thrilled one came up in the First Look selections. Side note – this story takes place in Savannah, a city which has long been on my list of places to visit. I travel with work somewhat often, and that locale just hasn’t come up yet. Maybe sometime soon.

Stay tuned.