Saturday Review: “Wolf and McGee in the Outfield” a review by Shelby Hans forthcoming in NCLR Online Spring 2025 of Thomas Wolf’s The Called Shot: Babe Ruth, the Chicago Cubs, and the Unforgettable Major League Baseball Season of 1932 (2023) and Ryan McGee’s Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer, at the Perfect Ballpark, at the Perfect Time (2023)
As Hans states in her review, in North Carolina “The love for baseball here is strong, as demonstrated by authors Thomas Wolf and Ryan McGee.” These two award-winning writers give their readers an in-depth and emotional look at baseball, and also at the people who love the sport.
Thomas Wolf is a two-time Doris Betts Fiction Prize winner (read his winning stories in our 2008 and 2012 issues). His book The Called Shot, Hans writes, is not simply a book about baseball: “it’s a book about America and its people during one of the country’s greatest challenges, the Great Depression, and the lives of those who lived and breathed baseball.” The book tells the story of the 1932 season, ending with Babe Ruth’s famous final World Series home run. Wolf “provides historical context, from politics to culture, to set the stage for the full story” including stories about the players and other historical figures involved in the 1932 season. The book “is a must read for devoted baseball fans and an entertaining read for others.”
From the Major Leagues of Wolf’s book to the minor leagues: Ryan McGee’s book details his personal experiences “working as an intern for a minor league baseball team, the Asheville Tourists, in 1994.” McGee offers a behind the scenes look at the inner workings of the team and the community surrounding it, both of the day and throughout history. This personal account of the inner workings of minor league baseball creates a story that is “heartwarming, nostalgic, and most of all, just plain funny.”
Read the entire review here! And please, buy your copies at independent bookstores or through Bookshop. Check out our listing of books reviewed in NCLR Online Spring 2025 on Bookshop here.
