Scan barcode
A review by tonyzale
The Cactus League by Emily Nemens
3.0
Baseball’s spring training: a classic American metaphor for rebirth. A chance for new beginnings; the opportunity to finally fulfill your potential. “The Cactus League” blows this fantasy up, over and over again, with a set of interlaced tales touching a fictitious Major League Baseball team during its six weeks in Scottsdale, Arizona. The promise of a new season doesn’t last long for these characters: from star outfielder Jason Goodyear’s gambling troubles, to the team organist struggling to master the stadium’s new, hi-tech sound system, spring’s optimism is crushed before the season even begins. A hammy, down-on-his-luck sportswriter ties the stories together with absurdly myopic analogies linking baseball to Arizona’s geologic and anthropologic history. Could he stretch to compare Native American tribes like the Pima or Hohokam to baseball teams? Why not: “the Maricopa seemed a good partner against the Apache (the bench-clearing brawls were getting more frequent).“
This sounds ridiculous and it is, but largely it works. These characters are stuck in baseball’s orbit, see no other way to live. Tami and her friend Deidre try to snag ballplayers in their self-admitted gold digging attempts centered around high-end local bars and restaurants. Players’ wives and girlfriends have an unspoken social hierarchy that plays out in box seats and at poolside parties. No one seems happy, but that’s baseball. Maybe next year.
This sounds ridiculous and it is, but largely it works. These characters are stuck in baseball’s orbit, see no other way to live. Tami and her friend Deidre try to snag ballplayers in their self-admitted gold digging attempts centered around high-end local bars and restaurants. Players’ wives and girlfriends have an unspoken social hierarchy that plays out in box seats and at poolside parties. No one seems happy, but that’s baseball. Maybe next year.