You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian looks at how we can muster up the courage to try again. It’s the reassurance that after a bad spell, there is something that comes after, and although it’s not perfect, it’s something. It’s 1960 in New York City and the reporter Mark Bailey and the baseball player Eddie O’Leary are in the midst of a sting of no good very bad days. Mark has been doing his best to not just haunt the 4th floor of the newspaper building and take his pampered dog for walks in the wake of his partner’s unexpected death. When his boss and close friend ask him to write the weekly diary of a rookie who hasn’t hit a single ball since he got called up from the minors, he reluctantly says yes. The young, kind, and hard-working Eddie defies Mark’s expectations. In doing so, a hit piece about an obnoxious baseball player transforms into the kindest underdog story of Mark’s career. This book is so kind and gentle even as it forcefully drags difficult topics into the light. What does it mean to be gay during a period of gay criminalization? How do you deal with grief for a partner, especially when it’s a partner no one knows about? Is it even possible to try when every time you do you fail? I cannot stress enough that this also manages to be a very fun book. Both characters are incredibly charming and well-constructed with built-out personal and professional lives. I did not care about baseball in New York City in the 1960s but if you offered me a ticket to Eddie’s game, I would drop everything else and go see the Robins with my own hand-written sign. Also, not to spoil anyone but I have never seen a more romantic gesture than having orange juice on hand and buying a bad book at an airport so they can be petty about it together. I cannot wait till Cat Sebastian drops the mini holiday chapter for them. It will be glorious. That is all to say you really should preorder You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian set to release May 7, 2024. I received an arc from Avon books in exchange for an honest review.

Nippon-Life Stadium, home of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes (1960)

THE CHILDREN’S HOUR 1961, dir. William Wyler

Baseball field Japan 1960s

R.I.P. Jerry Grote.

Minoru Murayama, 1967 Kabaya-Leaf via TampaBayCards.

First Montréal Expos game at Parc Jarry. 1969 [City of Montreal Archives]

Phil Ortega, 1968  Washington Senators

Alden's Christmas Book  -  1960

May 30, 1962 - John (Buck) O’Neil was signed as a Chicago Cub coach yesterday, becoming the first Negro to hold such a position in the major leagues. O’Neil, 50, had been a scout in the Cubs’ organization since 1956 and was instrumental in signing most of the Negro players on the club. As a former player and manager for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League, he helped both Ernie Banks and George Altman of the Cubs get their start toward the majors. O’Neil, who has aided the Cubs’ spring-training instructional program the last seven seasons, said: “I am very happy to have this opportunity of being a coach. I will do everything I can in helping instruct the team’s young ballplayers.”

ROGER MARIS (1960s) alone in the New York Yankees showers, except for a photographer from Life Magazine.

Darren Lee Holmes is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current bullpen coach for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball (MLB). Holmes pitc...

Link: Darren Holmes (baseball)