The reader realizes that not every professional ballpark is a Fenway Park, with neatly manicured grass and perfectly groomed infield dirt. Instead, the reader is confronted with Anderson County Stadium, where the infield is as hard as cement, and the outfield looks as though a bunch of kids had just finished having a rock fight.
Then there are the weird things that can happen only in the bushes, like games being stopped because of tornadoes or a brawl in the stands. One particular riot spilled over onto the field, and Wolff's team ended up losing half its gloves and bats.
All of this is right out of Casey and Mudville, and it's the kind of thing that baseball lore and legend is made of.
The only problem with the book is that at times it is pretentious. The whole idea of a Harvard student leaving school to play in the bushes reduces the book in some ways to a fling a la George Plimpton. Wolff always knew that if the Tiger organization released him he could return to Harvard. But what we don't get are any insights into the feelings of a ballplayer who has been five years in the minors with only a high school education and nothing else to fall back on if he's cut.
"The small town newspapers criticized me," Wolff said, "because they felt that here was this patronizing, condescending Harvard snot who's coming down hard on their kids. But that really wasn't the case. Baseball in the minors was a huge thrill for me, and the book resulted more from all the time on my hands than anything else."
Right now Wolff is in voluntary retirement from baseball. Last year he attended Boston College Law School.
"I wanted to make sure that I didn't end up being a 29-year-old, ten-year vet with nowhere to go."
But that isn't the end of Wolff's story. Irony of ironies, guess where Wolff is now? A special student at Harvard, taking Chemistry 20 and Biology 1 as a--that's right--pre-med.
Not Funny
"I didn't like law school. There were just as many characters there as in baseball, but they weren't funny. I did well academically, but I just didn't want it.
"My brother and some friends are doctors so this summer I worked at the Mass. General," he continued, "and I went to summer school for chemistry and biology. So here I am as a special student."
But needless to say, when asked if he would choose law, medicine or baseball, if he had the choice, Wolff unhesitatingly replied, "Baseball. I could play baseball all my life. It's always been my dream."
Well, at least Rick Wolff can say he has fulfilled part of his dream, which is more than most of us can say.