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nikkibd4033's review
4.0
I think paperbackswap.com thinks I'm a gay baseball player, which is a side-effect of having a strong proclivity for Steve Kluger books. It makes no difference to me if it means they will be recommending books like this for me.
Randy Dreyfus, a star shortstop for the fictional LA Valley Vikings, is a married father of two, who finds himself in the awkward position of falling in love with his second baseman. He fights it at first, but gives in to the feeling and he and DJ Pickett start a secret love affair. Until it becomes not so secret, thanks to a little stupidity on their part coupled by a lot of homophobia on the part of a Neiman-Marcus security guard.
What follows is a quickie cover-up job by MLB, the Vikings organization, and to a certain extent the media. But when security footage of Randy and DJ emerges, just as the Vikings are headed to the World Series, there is a call by a lot of powerful people to invoke the same clause banning the two lovebirds from the game for life. That is exactly what happens until one brave sports journalist writes a beautiful opinion piece (modeled after J'cusse in the real life Dreyfuss Affair) that turns the tide of public opinion.
The book starts a little slow, and the explanations of what Randy sees in DJ (and vice versa) aren't explained that well. But once Randy and DJ are caught, the book picks up to the point I couldn't put it down without finding out what happened.
This book was published twenty years ago, years before Billy Beane became the first MLB player (and he was already out of the game) came out of the closet. There is no doubt in my mind there are plenty of active gay players, but I think we are still equally far from seeing an active player come out. In the meantime, if I want some good old baseball slash, I can always reread The Dreyfus Affair. (Or Billy Bean's autobiography, whichever.)
Randy Dreyfus, a star shortstop for the fictional LA Valley Vikings, is a married father of two, who finds himself in the awkward position of falling in love with his second baseman. He fights it at first, but gives in to the feeling and he and DJ Pickett start a secret love affair. Until it becomes not so secret, thanks to a little stupidity on their part coupled by a lot of homophobia on the part of a Neiman-Marcus security guard.
What follows is a quickie cover-up job by MLB, the Vikings organization, and to a certain extent the media. But when security footage of Randy and DJ emerges, just as the Vikings are headed to the World Series, there is a call by a lot of powerful people to invoke the same clause banning the two lovebirds from the game for life. That is exactly what happens until one brave sports journalist writes a beautiful opinion piece (modeled after J'cusse in the real life Dreyfuss Affair) that turns the tide of public opinion.
The book starts a little slow, and the explanations of what Randy sees in DJ (and vice versa) aren't explained that well. But once Randy and DJ are caught, the book picks up to the point I couldn't put it down without finding out what happened.
This book was published twenty years ago, years before Billy Beane became the first MLB player (and he was already out of the game) came out of the closet. There is no doubt in my mind there are plenty of active gay players, but I think we are still equally far from seeing an active player come out. In the meantime, if I want some good old baseball slash, I can always reread The Dreyfus Affair. (Or Billy Bean's autobiography, whichever.)
expendablemudge's review
3.0
The Book Report: The eponymous Dreyfus, baseball star Randy, is an All-American Guy with a wife and two daughters. We meet him with that family as he opens a strip mall named for him near his suburban California home. Randy is a man with a problem, however: He's coming to know, at age 28, that he is really a gay man living a straight man's dream life. He's fallen in love with D.J. Pickett, second baseman to his pitcher (the joke here will become obvious in the review), despite the existence of a perfect wife, blonde and beautiful and hot for him. Not only is D.J. a man, he's a BLACK man! The scandal, the shock, the general all-around kerfuffle that ensues when the two men are caught in a clearly sexual situation! But true to Mr. Lefcourt's Hollywood writing pedigree, there is A Happy Ending. No, not *that* kind of happy ending, get your mind out of the gutter! This isn't a romance novel, it's A Love Story. Even the subtitle says so.
My Review: I'd love to live in the America of the ending of this book. In fact, what with some more adventurous sports stars like Ben Cohen starting to come out as against bullying and homophobia as cultural forces, it might *be* this world soon. Why, he's even started a foundation to combat these pernicious, ancient evils! Good on him, and his wife, and his two kids! But he was released from his international rugby-playing job after he started talking about these matters, despite being the MVP for his team. Plus he's over 30, which in rugby as in football means headin' for the barn. Still, bravo for doing it. Now, the reaction to this in the rugby-playing world has been muted because of his superstar status, but I note a singular quietude among teams in his former league.
Pro sports is not gonna welcome or acknowledge gay players if they're not even gonna let a gay-FRIENDLY guy work to change his childrens' world while working for them. So I find the Hollywood ending of the book, with the two men walking onto the field together to play a World Series game, poignantly amusing if improbable to the point of alternate-Universe-ness.
But the trip to get there is, well, amusing and improbable: the soon-to-be-ex-wife is all sympathy and understanding, a thing no woman of my acquaintance is when she's being left for someone else, and I mean *not*one*of*them* who've had it happen, the two daughters not being shown to be bullied mercilessly for having a fag-daddy (ha!), and the Salty Old Sports Columnist coming out (oops) in their favor...! Oh the glories of Lefcourt's imagination! Let this world come into being, and soon, if you please o kind and beneficent God! (Another improbable-to-the-point-of-humor concept.)
And then there are the odd choices, like making D.J. a black man who's the bottom and Randy a white top who plays *pitcher*! Top and bottom (pitcher and catcher, get it?), for the straight, are the sexual positions of the parties. They are also the source of stress and tension in the gay mating market, because logically two men having sex can't BOTH do the same thing at the same time, and a great big stigma attaches to the bottom (I hope I don't need to explain the source of these names...that would be too depressing...although Randy, our hero with the porn name {srsly, RANDY?!}, is specifically revealed to be clueless about how to satisfy his lust for D.J. until a specific moment in his 28 years of life!), as it does to the effimnate man. In other words, homophobia among the homos is alive and well. And Lefcourt chose an ethnic minority for his secondary character that has historically been completely, utterly, and often violently unsupportive of gay life. I have to wonder why he did that. Oh, but never fear: We're not given any actual sex to wince over, straight people. It's all implied. Honest and truly.
And baseball is, I mourn to report, an ever-more-marginal sport. In Murrika today, the uber-violent and pointless and boring football (which involves feet only tangentially, so far as I can see) is the dominant sport. Why pick on poor, fading baseball? Although the venality, the coarseness, and the criminality of the management are played against that sport's backdrop, I feel very sure that the same behaviors, attitudes, and law-breakings would happen in any of the professional sports. They're handling a LOT of money here. No way in hell does that not attraacy, if not breed, criminality. It simply can't help but do so.
So why'd I read it? And why would I recommend it? Because it's upbeat and it's nicely plotted and it's got its moments of trenchant commentary. Everybody needs a fairy tale every now and then. In baseball season, let this be yours.
My Review: I'd love to live in the America of the ending of this book. In fact, what with some more adventurous sports stars like Ben Cohen starting to come out as against bullying and homophobia as cultural forces, it might *be* this world soon. Why, he's even started a foundation to combat these pernicious, ancient evils! Good on him, and his wife, and his two kids! But he was released from his international rugby-playing job after he started talking about these matters, despite being the MVP for his team. Plus he's over 30, which in rugby as in football means headin' for the barn. Still, bravo for doing it. Now, the reaction to this in the rugby-playing world has been muted because of his superstar status, but I note a singular quietude among teams in his former league.
Pro sports is not gonna welcome or acknowledge gay players if they're not even gonna let a gay-FRIENDLY guy work to change his childrens' world while working for them. So I find the Hollywood ending of the book, with the two men walking onto the field together to play a World Series game, poignantly amusing if improbable to the point of alternate-Universe-ness.
But the trip to get there is, well, amusing and improbable: the soon-to-be-ex-wife is all sympathy and understanding, a thing no woman of my acquaintance is when she's being left for someone else, and I mean *not*one*of*them* who've had it happen, the two daughters not being shown to be bullied mercilessly for having a fag-daddy (ha!), and the Salty Old Sports Columnist coming out (oops) in their favor...! Oh the glories of Lefcourt's imagination! Let this world come into being, and soon, if you please o kind and beneficent God! (Another improbable-to-the-point-of-humor concept.)
And then there are the odd choices, like making D.J. a black man who's the bottom and Randy a white top who plays *pitcher*! Top and bottom (pitcher and catcher, get it?), for the straight, are the sexual positions of the parties. They are also the source of stress and tension in the gay mating market, because logically two men having sex can't BOTH do the same thing at the same time, and a great big stigma attaches to the bottom (I hope I don't need to explain the source of these names...that would be too depressing...although Randy, our hero with the porn name {srsly, RANDY?!}, is specifically revealed to be clueless about how to satisfy his lust for D.J. until a specific moment in his 28 years of life!), as it does to the effimnate man. In other words, homophobia among the homos is alive and well. And Lefcourt chose an ethnic minority for his secondary character that has historically been completely, utterly, and often violently unsupportive of gay life. I have to wonder why he did that. Oh, but never fear: We're not given any actual sex to wince over, straight people. It's all implied. Honest and truly.
And baseball is, I mourn to report, an ever-more-marginal sport. In Murrika today, the uber-violent and pointless and boring football (which involves feet only tangentially, so far as I can see) is the dominant sport. Why pick on poor, fading baseball? Although the venality, the coarseness, and the criminality of the management are played against that sport's backdrop, I feel very sure that the same behaviors, attitudes, and law-breakings would happen in any of the professional sports. They're handling a LOT of money here. No way in hell does that not attraacy, if not breed, criminality. It simply can't help but do so.
So why'd I read it? And why would I recommend it? Because it's upbeat and it's nicely plotted and it's got its moments of trenchant commentary. Everybody needs a fairy tale every now and then. In baseball season, let this be yours.
amysaura's review
Got half way through. Did not really grab me and it was too American for my tastes.
somechelsea's review
5.0
Fantastic book! It's very much a book about baseball, and the life of a professional baseball player - Randy Dreyfus, the league's preemptive MVP shortstop, just happens to be falling in love with his second baseman, D. J. Pickett.
Dreyfus is a great character - completely hysterical, while sympathetic and relatable. He kept trying to explain to his shrink how he was feeling using only baseball terminology, which won me over very quickly - he even dubbed himself a "lefty", wondering if he'll be easily recognized by other lefties.
Gay baseball players in love! Some truly hysterical inner monologues! The author seemingly predicting the 1994 baseball strike in 1992, when the book was published! A running gag with the name of a shopping mall! Neiman Marcus dressing rooms and the security guards who watch them! World Series games! The following exchange: "We got a couple of lost ballplayers." "Ballplayers, Mr. President?" "Affirmative, Norm. They're in a rowboat with a Dalmation. Find 'em." Much discussion over the significance of those copper plaques on a wall in Cooperstown!
Overall, funny and very clever, with a nice, subtle hint of satire.
Dreyfus is a great character - completely hysterical, while sympathetic and relatable. He kept trying to explain to his shrink how he was feeling using only baseball terminology, which won me over very quickly - he even dubbed himself a "lefty", wondering if he'll be easily recognized by other lefties.
Gay baseball players in love! Some truly hysterical inner monologues! The author seemingly predicting the 1994 baseball strike in 1992, when the book was published! A running gag with the name of a shopping mall! Neiman Marcus dressing rooms and the security guards who watch them! World Series games! The following exchange: "We got a couple of lost ballplayers." "Ballplayers, Mr. President?" "Affirmative, Norm. They're in a rowboat with a Dalmation. Find 'em." Much discussion over the significance of those copper plaques on a wall in Cooperstown!
Overall, funny and very clever, with a nice, subtle hint of satire.
mazily's review
2.0
Total guilty pleasure. Not what I would call "good," per se, but certainly enjoyable.
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