Home Run in Harvard Square: "You Gotta Love Writing"

All sports fans love sports stories, and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education's recent event was a showcase of excellent storytellers. Billed under the title, "Reporting From the Dugout," last Thursday's presentation featured Red Sox beat writer for the Boston Globe Amalie Benjamin, author of Wicked Good Year and Boston Herald columnist Steve Buckley, and host of NPR's Only A Game Bill Littlefield. I'd only read Amalie and had never heard of Buckley or Littlefield, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised as the night began with Littlefield setting the tone by beginning with a story about, years ago, meeting a Twins player hours before first pitch sitting in the empty stands to remind himself how beautiful the game (as opposed to the business) of baseball is. After all three of them told a quick story about their jobs, they opened up the floor for questions from the audience.

Every question from the audience became an opportunity for the panel to retell their favorite stories from their careers. They talked about Manny Ramirez selling grills, which players they can or cannot rely on for good quotes, and how awkward it can be as a reporter in a locker room full of naked ballplayers. They fed off each other, joking with each other and letting one story prompt another. When Littlefield talked about accidentally running into Theodore Roosevelt "Double Duty" Radcliffe, I realized I could sit there and listen to these people talk about sports all night.

At one point, Littlefield said that in order to do their jobs, "you gotta love writing," meaning they do what they do not because they love sports (which I'm sure they do), but because they love writing. Both Amalie and Littlefield spoke of how relaxing and how much joy the actual act of writing brought them. With that in mind, it's no wonder their anecdotes were so perfectly crafted, no doubt the result of countless retellings. (As I left the venue, I overheard Buckley say, "That's a line I use often").

Even though Littlefield acted as moderator, Buckley pretty much dominated the hour and a half. I mean this with as much respect as possible, because even though I enjoyed what Amalie Benjamin had to say and will start tuning in to Littlefield's NPR show, it was Buckley who left the biggest impression on me from the moment he walked in (late from his WEEI radio show, looking like a manlier William H. Macy, and interrupting Littlefield's story). It was immediately obvious that Buckley is a natural storyteller. He had perfected the cadence to each story. Every time he spoke, I was struck with not only how well he knew baseball, but how he seemed to see the story beneath a seemingly unremarkable situation, like seeing the generations of baseball brought together by baseball scout Lennie Merullo talking to a group of college baseball players while holding a bat used by Babe Ruth. Needless to say, I'll be checking out his book (pictured to the right) very soon.

For more information about the Cambridge Center for Adult Education's Home Run in Harvard Square series, click here.