Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
Malamud chose to take this character with all his hopes and dreams and destroy him totally. Why? What message does that send? Why did Malamud want to use baseball, a game of optimism and there's-always-tomorrow and wait-till-next-year to be so unbearably pessimistic?
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Why not? Not all stories can or should have happy endings, although I agree that this particular one was unreservedly bleak. And there's the flip side of baseball, too; the side that breaks your heart, that chews up players who never get to the big show or just barely edge into it to disappear without a memory.
I read a book about the minors a few years ago, by John Feinstein. Optimism, yes, but it frequently doesn't pay off.