Baseball in Literature for Children and Young Adults

Jay Hurd

Presidential Ballroom II

As the game of baseball affects the lives of children and young adults, so too does baseball in literature. Baseball literature offers entertainment, humor, excitement, and motivation to read. Baseball, as game and legend, has been a theme in literature for years, appearing in fiction and non-fiction, history and biography, poetry and prose. A biography of Jackie Robinson can reveal truths of human behavior, positive and negative, including prejudice, courage, and hope. A fictional work tells of a young boy’s encounter with Honus Wagner who teaches him how to be a more complete ballplayer and a more complete human being. Referring to titles such as Baseball Saved Us, by Ken Mochizuki, The Bat Boy and His Violin, by Gavin Curtis, Jackie Robinson: Young Sports Trailblazer, by Jim O’Connor, and Dirt on Their Skirts, by Doreen Rappaport, this presentation will explore how baseball literature encourages young readers to step outside the mundane and into the realm of inspiration and dreams. Baseball literature presents wonderful stories replete with illustrations, photographs, details and analyses, and gives children and young adults a means to learn about themselves and adults, and a means for adults to learn about them.

Jay Hurd is the Preservation Review Librarian for Widener Library, Harvard University and has worked in the Harvard College Library system for fourteen years. He is a graduate of the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College and notes that his major projects include studies of Jackie Robinson and the Negro Leagues and a baseball oral history. A resident of Medford, Massachusetts, Jay has exhibited baseball memorabilia at the Medford Public Library and at Widener Library, Harvard University. He has been a member of SABR since 1998, and is a fan of the Boston Red Sox.