Coffee Table Book of: Softball (Paperback)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Softball is a large-format coffee table book of softball, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the ball, the glove and the bat, the clay and chalk of the field, the dugout, practice and play, and the field through the seasons and under its lights.

It opens with the ball and the glove: a yellow ball on dark clay at sunrise, a worn white ball on a weathered shelf, a ball in the pocket of a brown glove, the woven web of a glove and an open canvas bag with a glove and balls on a bench at sunset.

Then the field: a whole infield far off across dewy grass at dawn, home plate set in red clay, a white base, the pitching circle seen from high above, a foul line running from clay into grass, the batter’s boxes either side of the plate and a low chain-link backstop.

Then the dugout and the work before play: a bucket of balls before an empty bench, a row of batting helmets on a shelf, bats hanging in a wall rack, a field rake, a chalk line marker on its line, a garden hose coiled by the infield, the wet infield after rain and a ball mirrored in a puddle.

Then the practice gear and the end of practice: a ball on a batting tee, a practice net, a batting glove hung on the handle of a bat, a glove with a loose replacement lace, a visor and a folded towel on a dugout bench, a packed bag and a player walking away from the field at sunset.

Then the field through the year: before bare frosted trees on a winter morning, beneath spring blossom, above a misty valley at summer dawn and far off before red and gold autumn trees, then a backstop in morning fog and a ball in dewy grass.

Toward the end: an old white ball and a wooden bat on a dark plank floor, a worn glove beside a newer one, a white ball and a yellow ball side by side, home plate dusted with clay beside a small brush, a ball on an empty spectator bench and a worn glove in the grass beneath a calm evening sky.

Short notes run through the book, on the ball, the glove and the bat, the clay and chalk of the field and the way the game is played: how the grip and knob mark the end the batter holds, how mitt and ball work together to receive the pitch, the small white rectangle that marks the pitcher’s starting place, and the three forms of the game, fast pitch, slow pitch and modified pitch.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a paperback.