Plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay Baaaaaaaaaaallll!!
Caribbean Life, APRIL, 2-8, 2021 27
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Your teeth got a good workout
. Yep, as a kid, you wanted
those certain hard-to-find,
favorite-player baseball cards
but you didn’t want to be wasteful.
Because you’d do anything
to get the cards, you spent your
change, hoped you’d be lucky,
and you chewed a lot of gum. In
the new book “Comeback Season”
by Cam Perron (with Nick
Chiles), though, the best things
don’t come in a pack.
It all started with coins.
When Cam Perron was a little
boy, his grandfather introduced
him to coin collecting
by taking young Perron to a
local Massachusetts flea market,
where the boy learned that
collectible things had stories
behind them. That got him
fired up about antiques, comic
books, baseball cards, and
music memorabilia. Other kids
his age might’ve thought his
hobbies were odd but Perron
didn’t care; since toddlerhood,
he was always more interested
in what adults had to say than
what his peers thought.
Perron had a variety of interests
throughout childhood. He
loved playing hockey and dabbled
in Little League but he
says that adults ruined his fun
in the games. At about the time
he entered middle school, Red
Sox fever hit his hometown just
outside Boston and he talked
his mom into indulging his
love of Red Sox memorabilia.
One day, the collector in
Perron took notice of baseball
cards for Negro League players,
and his curiosity led him
to research the stories behind
the League; individual players
caught his fancy and, with the
eagerness of the 12-year-old he
was, the white boy from Boston
picked up the phone and
called to talk with Black players
that were many decades years
older than he. Astoundingly,
Book cover of”Comeback Season” by Cam Perron with
Nick Chiles.
Perron became friends with
those men, and he began making
a name for himself among
Negro League players for finding
information they thought
was lost forever – information
that brought recognition,
reconnection and, for some of
baseball’s most talented, financial
refuge.
“Comeback Season” is a good
book that speaks to the heart of
every former little boy with a
fist full of baseball cards and
an eye on a good deal. Hobbyists
will completely understand
what author Cam Perron says
about the “hunt” and why it’s
almost the best part of collecting,
and his tales of accumulation
will thrill anyone who’s
relished the nail-biting anticipation
of finding that one thing
in a surprise place.
The big appeal of this book,
though, starts when Perron
quiets himself and lets Negro
Leaguers talk. Readers who
come to this book to learn
about Black baseball players in
the Jim Crow era are treated
to remembrances from these
men, in their own words, and
their stories and their heartfelt
appreciation just can’t be
missed. Perron includes a briefbut
helpful history of Negro
League ball early-on but really,
look for the players’ personal
tales.
This book reads faster than
a one-two-three inning and,
aside from a couple of very
minor profanities, it’s safe for
a teen baseball fan. So find
“Comeback Season,” play ball,
and you’ll show a lot of teeth.
“Comeback Season: My
Unlikely Story of Friendship
with the Greatest Living
Negro League Baseball
Players” by Cam Perron
with Nick Chiles, foreword
by Hank Aaron
c.2021, Gallery Books
$27.00 / $36.00 Canada
272 pages
‘Comeback Season’ author Cam Perron. Cam Perron
La mayor names Vincentian American poet laureate
open up new avenues of art and
thinking,” said Mayor Garcetti
in a statement.
“Los Angeles is an international
capital of creativity,
a place for dynamic dreamers
who shape global culture,
ignite trends, and inspire —
and I know Lynne will use her
drive to show Angelenos and
beyond the immense power of
poetry,” he added.
The Los Angeles Poet Laureate
Program is a collaboration
between the Department
of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and
the Los Angeles Public Library
(LAPL).
“The aim of this effort is
to enhance the presence and
appreciation of poetry and the
literary arts in Los Angeles, and
to engage Angelenos who have
limited exposure to poetry and
other forms of expressive writing,”
the statement said.
Thompson, a Los Angeles
resident, said she was “humbled
and honored to have been
selected as Los Angeles’ next
Poet Laureate.
“The city has a true recognition
of the value of poetry in
our cultural landscape, and I
am excited about the opportunities
ahead,” she added.
Thompson is the author
of “Fretwork”, “Start with a
Small Guitar” and “Beg No
Pardon.”
In 2015, she received an Artist
Fellowship from the City of
Los Angeles.
Her other awards include
the 2016 Stephen Dunn Poetry
Prize and the 2017 Tucson Literary
Award (Poetry).
One of Thompson’s poems
was included in the 2020 Best
American Poetry anthology.
Her most recent work
appears or is forthcoming in
Black Warrior Review, New
England Review, Nelle, Pleiades
and Colorado Review,
among others.
Widely anthologized, Garcetti
said Thompson’s poems also
appear in Coiled Serpent, Poets
Arising from the Cultural
Quakes & Shifts of Los Angeles
and Wide Awake: Poets of
Los Angeles and Beyond.
“Los Angeles poets give us
hope and inspiration,” said
Danielle Brazell, general manager
of Los Angeles Department
of Cultural Affairs.
“Lynne Thompson is a leading
voice, widely recognized and
awarded for her contemporary
work.
“The city’s creative communities
will be enriched by
her belief that poetry can be
used as a path of questioning
and understanding to illuminate
a broad range of issues,”
she said. “I know her words
will have a profound impact on
the residents of our city and
the next generation of aspiring
poets.”
Continued from Page 26