Customer Reviews

Universal Baseball Association

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The basic story of Coover's book is quite simple. Henry Waugh creates an intricate single-player baseball game that's played with dice. He plays entire seasons with his eight-team league; he keeps detailed statistics for every player and every game; he creates backstories and personalities for his players; he develops an administrative body for his league and imagines political debates among the players; and he acts as an official historian of the league, writing volumes of stories about the game and its players. When something shocking and unexpected occurs within the game, Henry gradually loses the ability to distinguish between reality and imagined events within the game. In the end, he is more or less consumed by his game.

As the synopsis above no doubt suggests, this story begs to be read as an allegory. One might read it as an allegory of God's relation to His creation. Henry, like God, is a creator who appears to have complete control over his creation, and yet, like God, his creation comes to take on a life of its own. When terrible things occur, he desperately wants to step in and set things right, but he also wants the game to retain its integrity. So Henry is like God in that he remains outside his creation even though it seems he could sometimes intervene to set things right. (Indeed, some of the game's players are said to have some sense of a higher power controlling their destiny.) One might also read Henry's relation to his game as an allegory of man's attempt to make sense of his world through art, religion, science, philosophy, etc. All that's really going on is the random event of rolling the dice, as, in some sense, all that's really going on in the universe is certain random physical events. And yet Henry imagines an entire alternate reality to make sense of the random events of his game. His player backgrounds and psychologies, his historical interpretations of the game, his imaginings of crowds and stadiums--all of this is intended to give the random throws of the dice some meaning, some significance to him. (This reading is also suggested by our one look at Henry at work in his job as an accountant. Rather than merely crunch the numbers, he reads a story of the operation of a business off his accounting books. He makes sense of the numbers by seeing them as evidence of something beyond themselves.) Finally, one might interpret Henry's relation to his game as an allegory of the artist's relation to his works.

These allegorical readings notwithstanding, it's also possible to read this book as a simple and moving story of one isolated man who gradually loses touch with reality. While Henry seems a decent enough chap, he has no family, only one friend (and not an especially close one), no real love interest, and no interests outside of his game. From what we learn in the novel, it seems his entire life consists in (occasionally) going to work at his mind-numbing job, stopping at the local bar to drown his sorrows, and sitting at his kitchen table playing his game. Since Henry's life is thoroughly dull and uneventful from the outside, the book focuses on what's going on in his mind. The focus of the book is his isolation and his attempts to create something important and lasting and to be a part of something larger than himself. The opportunity to create something important is what the game appears to provide him, and so it's not all that surprising that he ends up losing himself in his game.

This, of course, suggests that Henry can be understood as an example of the way in which alienated individuals can get lost in solitary pursuits that are made available to them by modern life. Because he lacks an community of people with which to identify, Henry ends up getting lost in his game in much the same way that others can get lost in books, television, the internet, etc. All of these things appear to provide their user with a connection to a world beyond himself, and yet total immersion in them brings you no closer to other people than you'd be without them.

I'd give this book 4.5 stars if I could; that seems a more accurate assessment. The reader should note that this isn't really a baseball book. It's more about the trappings of baseball--the statistics, the history, the players, the rites--than it is about the game itself. So this isn't a book for someone looking for a presentation of dramatic athletic feats; instead, it's a book for the baseball fan whose appreciation of the game is intellectual rather than visceral.

Henry Waugh is a fifty-something accountant with no family, no friends & no future at work. All he
has going for him is that he is the creator & sole proprietor of the Universal Baseball Association.
Henry has invented a Stratomatic-type baseball game & taken it to the nth degree. He has rules for
virtually every possible occurrence & potential roll of the dice. He has populated the game with
players of his own creation. These players even participate in offseason activities, like pinball
tournaments, and get involved in Association politics when they retire. There are retired players
because Henry has played out over fifty UBA seasons. Henry hasn't simply created a game, he's
created a personal Universe.

The greatest player in Association history was Brock Rutherford and now his son, Damon Rutherford,
is taking the UBA by storm. Henry's enthusiasm for the Association has waned in recent years, but the
rise of Damon Rutherford has renewed his interest. Suddenly the game is fun again and Henry's life
seems full & interesting. When young Damon throws a perfect game, Henry is so caught up in the
excitement that he tampers with his own rules and allows Damon to start his next game on one day of
rest. And, of course, when the Creator tampers with his own rules, his creations will pay the price.

The first 150 or so pages of this book are absolutely fabulous. As disaster befalls the Association &
Henry's life crumbles around him he loses the ability to separate reality from fantasy and the book too
becomes confused, but it is still a terrific read.

GRADE: A-

Like Malamud's "The Natural," Coover's "The Universal Baseball Association" uses baseball to explore mythology, religion, and the nature of belief. While Coover manages to successfully incorporate all of these, however, the novel meets the first command of great literature: the story stands on its own.

The protagonist, J. Henry Waugh, is one of modern American fiction's great creations, a lonley man who spends most of his time in a small New York apartment obsessively ruminating over his great creation: an elaborate dice/board game that serves as the playing field for his Universal Baseball Assn. Waugh plays a full season of games, keeps detailed statistics on each player, and fully documents the history of his league (including the lives and deaths of his "players").

The novel turns on Henry's (godlike) intervention into the game's natural course (ruled by the dice) after the death of a young pitcher in whom he has invested his emotions, hopes and dreams. This intervention touches off a series of questions about the nature of God, Man, and Fate. None of these discussions are divorced from the fabric of the story, however. Throughout, our eyes are clearly on Henry, as he slowly deteriorates mentally, the "game" becoming far more real than "real life."

This is a superb book. It will naturally appeal to baseball lovers, but those who don't give two figs about baseball will be caught up in Coover's sophisticated storytelling and will be impressed by his flawless narrative control and his ability to transcend the immediate subject of the novel.

This book is a great read. It is chilly in its implications of a creator and the creator's universe. I invented a dice game like this when about 12--44 years ago. I was surprised and happy when I saw commercial games appear. They only had stats for major league players. This was not for me--I re-rated my invented players according to their stats to fit into a commercial game with a spinner. That made too much noise so I purchased a book of random numbers to use instead. I have years of stats for my league. I was able to interest my brother in starting his own league. Many years later my oldest son played the game, but he only used the major league players. This book was a scary look at myself. I too 'published' a newspaper with standings, stats, etc. for my league. This book was like looking at one's own life drawn to the extreme

This is a savagely funny, brutally creative (and, at times, very dark) novel about baseball and the human condition that ultimately takes a theological twist. It is not for everyone, but would definitely be a treat to someone who has a fondness for black comedy and untrustworthy narrators - and some passion for baseball.

This is a book I first read tweny years ago, and still find a reason to re-read it again every few years. This tale about a man who blurs the lines between his dice baseball game and reality is moving and sad. Why no film has been made of this book is a mystery to me. It is a quick read, but one that will leave you thinking about the book once you are done. Poor Henry Waugh and his demons, or stars, from his viewpoint strikes me as a dark, sad man, yet content in his world, or the world he made for himself. Highly recommended.

i read this book a number of years back & have to say among the few hundreds of books i've read in my lifetime this is one of my favorites. of course it harked back into my love of baseball & youth & how my friends & i used to create & manage imaginary leagues in our backyards w/ duct taped newspaper balls & wiffle bats. but i must say that more hit w/ this, at least from a creative level & entertainment i found it most fun & refreshing if that doesnt sound too corny. anyway, if you like baseball @ all, or just sports in general & also enjoy great writing & creativity i would highly recommend this...

Impossible though it may seem, I think I can agree with (or at least understand) almost all that is written in these reviews. The fact is, Coover's hallucinogenic style is not for everyone. It's not for nothing that he is omitted from the DeLillo/Pynchon/Stone pantheon; he's a cult guy. I've read The Origin of the Brunists (Coover's first, I think, and an NBA winner as I recall) and The Public Burning, and enjoyed both immensely. He takes postmodernism to its utter horrifying extreme. But all who read him will eventually have to confront the power of his writing.

The idea of this book goes well beyond baseball, but baseball followers will find it especially compelling because of the familiarity of the setting. At the core of it is a lonely, singular man who invents his own reality and plays his hand as a deity. He loses himself more and more in his artificial world as things progress, wheeling and dealing his players, arranging their movements, watching their achievements and failures. The outside world loses its attraction. At the conclusion he has to confront, and then participate in, a life/death situation regarding one of his players. With that he slips into insanity. It is truly a scary read.

If you are familiar with and enjoy Coover's psychotic forays, then you must read this one. If you are more the Barbara Kingsolver type, well, stay clear.

I found this to be a subervisevly scary book. i have been playing strat o matic baseball for well over 27 years. I understand well the idea of playing out your life in a fantasy world. somehow i always knew that it was just a game. I do know others i have played with over the years who it seems are unable to make this distinction. This is why i find this book to be scary. It hit home. by the way, the final chapter is unreadable and sounds like a william burroghs nightmare passage from interzone or the naked lunch. just not as entertaining.

A must read. The text is thicker than an onion and one cries from the smell. Politics is a dirty game, but fun.