Casey At The Bat

Casey At The Bat

Think back to those amazingly languid summers of your childhood, when in the heat of the day you followed the game on a distant radio, watched the pros on the living-room TV, or cheered your local heroes at the hometown ballpark. Ernest Thayer's classic tale of baseball hopes and dreams comes to life like never before with LeRoy Neiman's lush, meticulously detailed charcoal drawings and an original introduction by Yankees manager Joe Torre, considered by many to be the greatest baseball manager of all time. These illustrations -- a rare departure from the vibrantly colored paintings that made LeRoy Neiman famous -- evoke Mudville's beloved Casey in images that are muscular, immediate, and unmistakably American.A volume of matchless artistry, this edition of Casey at the Bat is a treasure for all generations.From BooklistGr. 2-6. There always seems to be one more version of the news that there's no joy in Mudville. The 1888 poem is given very modern dress by Neiman, who forsakes his usual gaudy palette for muscular charcoal drawings. There's a profusion of full-page and double-page-spread images of Casey and his fellow players, dramatic close-ups and poses worthy of antique Greek statuary. Neiman raises his figures to mythic level: even long shots showing the pitcher throwing to Casey from the mound achieve a hieratic quality. Christopher Bing's Caldecott Honor book,Casey at the Bat (2000), with its marvelous period images and collage effects, is about as different from Neiman'sSports-Illustrated-esque style as it could possibly be and is possibly more kid-friendly. However, Jose Torre's genial introduction, which talks about teamwork and play and passion, may draw young fans.GraceAnne DeCandidoCopyright