The Dixon Cornbelt League and Other Baseball Stories is a short story collection written by W. P. Kinsella. It was published in 1993.
These nine stories from Kinsella all have the same general themes, centering on baseball, human nature, and the mystical.
The title story is about an undrafted college player's attempt to go pro. He catches on with a minor league team in a small Iowa town, where the atmosphere is light and the citizens welcoming. However, something isn't right about the new team...
Other stories in the collection are more surreal. For example, in "Eggs," an old pitcher is kept in his in-laws' home by some mysterious force.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-related artifacts and exhibits, honoring those who have excelled in playing, managing, and serving the sport. The Hall's motto is "Preserving History, Honoring Excellence, Connecting Generations". Cooperstown is often used as shorthand for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues".
Field of Dreams is a 1989 American sports fantasy drama film written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Canadian novelist W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel Shoeless Joe. The film stars Kevin Costner as a farmer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends, including Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago Black Sox. Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, and Burt Lancaster also star.
Joseph Jefferson Jackson, nicknamed "Shoeless Joe", was an American outfielder who played Major League Baseball (MLB) in the early 20th century. Although his .356 career batting average is the fourth highest in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB), he is often remembered for his association with the Black Sox Scandal, in which members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series. As a result, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned Jackson from baseball after the 1920 season. During the World Series in question, Jackson had led both teams in several statistical categories and set a World Series record with 12 base hits. Jackson's role in the scandal, banishment from the game, and exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame have been fiercely debated.
William Patrick "W. P." Kinsella was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, known for his novel Shoeless Joe (1982), which was adapted into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989. His work often concerned baseball, First Nations people, and Canadian culture.
The Black Sox Scandal was a game-fixing scandal in Major League Baseball (MLB) in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally losing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for payment from a gambling syndicate, possibly led by organized crime figure Arnold Rothstein. There is strong evidence both for and against Rothstein's involvement; however, there is no conclusive indication that the gambling syndicate's actions were directed by organized crime. In response, the National Baseball Commission was dissolved and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed to be the first Commissioner of Baseball, given absolute control over the sport to restore its integrity.
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley, which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the United States. Over 600 women played in the league, which eventually consisted of 10 teams located in the American Midwest. In 1948, league attendance peaked at over 900,000 spectators. The most successful team, the Rockford Peaches, won a league-best four championships.
Carl Owen Hubbell, nicknamed "the Meal Ticket" and "King Carl", was an American Major League Baseball player. He was a pitcher for the New York Giants of the National League from 1928 to 1943, and remained on the team's payroll for the rest of his life, long after their move to San Francisco.
John Kinsella is an Australian poet, novelist, critic, essayist and editor. His writing is strongly influenced by landscape, and he espouses an "international regionalism" in his approach to place. He has also frequently worked in collaboration with other writers, artists and musicians.
Archibald Wright "Moonlight" Graham was an American professional baseball player and medical doctor who appeared as a right fielder in a single major league game for the New York Giants on June 29, 1905. His story was popularized by Shoeless Joe, a novel by W. P. Kinsella, and the subsequent 1989 film Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, and featuring Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley, respectively, as older and younger incarnations of Graham.
The Meiji Jingu Stadium is a baseball stadium in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It opened in 1926 and holds 37,933 spectators. Property of the Meiji Shrine, it is the home field of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows professional baseball team. It also hosts college baseball, including the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League and the Tohto University Baseball League.
Mark Anthony Kinsella is an Irish football manager and former player, currently a coach at Drogheda United after previously being both the manager and assistant manager. He played as a central midfielder for most of his career.
Shoeless Joe is a 1982 magic realist novel by Canadian author W. P. Kinsella that was later adapted into the 1989 film Field of Dreams, which was nominated for three Academy Awards.
John Bannerman McLean was a Canadian professional baseball catcher between 1901 until 1915. During his years in Major League Baseball, he played with five different teams. Beginning his career with the Boston Americans, his final professional game was played with the New York Giants on June 6, 1915.
Ricky Neal Horton is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers. He is currently a radio broadcaster for the Cardinals.
Mose Hirsch Solomon, nicknamed the Rabbi of Swat was an American left-handed baseball player. In 1923, he hit 49 home runs in the minors, a new minor league record. He briefly played for the New York Giants in Major League Baseball in 1923.
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy is a 1986 novel written by Canadian author W.P. Kinsella. It is less well known than his novel Shoeless Joe, which came to prominence when it was made into the film Field of Dreams. Like in Shoeless Joe, baseball is at the heart of the novel, which uses magical realism to blend events and individuals past and present with the author's love of the game. However, it covers more themes than Shoeless Joe and it explores a greater number of plot lines.
"A Young Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All" is a short story by J. D. Salinger, published in Mademoiselle in May 1947. The story has not been published in any authorized anthology, but has appeared in the 1974 unauthorized collection Twenty-one Stories: The Complete Uncollected Short Stories of J. D. Salinger. The illustrator was Laura Jean Allen. The character of Ray Kinsella is seen as an early version of the character Seymour from Salinger's later work "A Perfect Day for Bananafish".
Edward William "Rube" Kinsella was a pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Browns. He stood at 6' 1" and weighed 175 lbs.
Butterfly Winter was the seventh novel published by the late Canadian writer W.P. Kinsella. The story of Julio and Esteban Pimental, twins whose divine destiny for baseball begins with games of catch in the womb, the novel marks a return to form, combining his long-held passions of baseball and magical realism.