Field Work: On Baseball and Making a Living

“As someone who likes to think about baseball from all manner of different angles, I found Field Work: On Baseball and Making a Living to be a compelling and energizing read. Not only does Andrew Forbes connect the present game to the history of labour relations, he reminds us that it all starts with grassroots baseball and regular fans, and that stats and balance sheets can only ever tell us part of the story.”—Ben Nicholson-Smith, Sportsnet

“What a mind Andrew Forbes has, and how lucky we are that he’s given over so much of it to thinking about baseball — sifting through its bottomless history for bits of gold, diving with gusto down its quirkiest rabbit holes. He’s a five-tool talent, and with Field Work he stakes his claim as baseball’s most indispensable folklorist. This collection of essays is the purest expression yet of his love for the game and the men who played it for a living.”—Devin Gordon, author of So Many Ways to Lose

“Canada’s resident baseball philosopher has done it again, offering a typically charming collection of quirky essays tying America’s pastime to universal facets of life, love and—as the title suggests—work. To read this Andrew Forbes book is to lose oneself in a world of baseball mysticism grounded in the decidedly un-mystic world of hard (and sometimes not-so-hard) labour. Savor it in pieces or gobble it down all at once; either way, you’ll be glad you did.”—Jason Turbow, author of They Bled Blue