LEFTY.

LEFTY. Mary Jane met Vernona Gomez recently. Vernona Gomez is the daughter of the Hall of Fame pitcher Lefty Gomez; she and Lawrence Goldstone have written a biography of Lefty Gomez: LEFTY. I’ve read it eagerly. The book begins with a vivid portrayal of life in Rodeo, a small town in California, in the 1920’s, but the heart of the book is the story of baseball in the 1930’s. (Fans dressed up to go to games—suits or sports jackets). I’ve read a lot of baseball history, but the book had a lot that was new to me. For example, despite the public image that sportswriters created for him, Babe Ruth spent a lot of time off the field in quiet conversation with his wife and other couples, including the Gomezes. The quiet life was to some extent forced on him because of his celebrity. Sometimes he would remark that he would love to go to Palisades Amusement Park, and the people with him knew that normal activity of that kind was foreclosed to him. Here is the website for the book.