Pynchon and baseball

[Ya Sam]

I took to watching baseball matches on North American Sports channel (well, 
actually some snippets, 'cause 3 hours of baseball are too much for me) and 
while gradually developing a sort of understanding of this game I realised 
that I would always remain pretty indifferent to it. And I am completely 
aware of the fact that most of the Americans will remain indifferent to 
soccer. Now, although Pynchon undoubtedly belongs to world literature, he is 
still very American writer. He does mention the game on several occasions 
but these meagre references only serve to highlight the virtual absence of 
baseball in his ouevre. Why do you think it is so?

GR

'In fact, no two people have been so ill-equipped to approach a holy Center 
since the days of Tchitcherine and Dzaqyp Qulan, hauling ass over the 
steppe, into the North, to find their Kirghiz Light. That's about ten years' 
gap. Giving this pastime about the same vulnerability to record-breakers as 
baseball, a sport also well-spidered with white suggestions of the 
sinister.'


Vineland

'They sat together on the floor in front of the Tube, with a chair-high bag 
of Chee-tos and a sixpack of grapefruit soda from the health-food store, 
watching baseball highlights, commercials, and weather — no rain again — 
till it was time for the kissoff story.'

'Out in the bar a baseball game was on, Central League playoffs, and a few 
guests had lingered till the traditional 8:56, when the transmission from 
the ballpark was abruptly cut off, in the middle of a double play, in fact.'

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