Field Work
On Baseball and Making a Living
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Assembly Press
Published:29th May '25
Should be back in stock very soon
Roger Angell meets Hanif Abdurraqib meets Bull Durham in this sharp new collection of baseball writing by Andrew Forbes
Baseball is a sport, a pastime, an obsession, a dream—and for some, it’s also a day job. A poetic survey of baseball’s rich history, Field Work shines a light on the people who make the game happen, from major-league stars and little-league coaches to gamblers, ballpark operators, and minor leaguers forging lives outside the dugout.
With sharp-eyed observations and beautiful digressions, these essays portray the complex relationship between work and play—both on and off the field—to demonstrate how baseball is more than just a game.
"Andrew Forbes hits a home run with his new book Field Work: On Baseball And Making A Living"―The Seaboard Review
"In the style of Roger Angell and Hanif Abdurraqib, Forbes offers a unique and nuanced view of America’s pastime."—The Seattle Times
"Forbes has morphed into a version of Robert M. Pirsig, dissecting an approach to Zen and the Art of Baseballistic Maintenance, motoring and cycling through self-aware, authentic shares of all the small joys that get to the essence of spot-on observations and storytelling, making readers yearn for more."—The Drill
"If Forbes hasn’t hit a home run with this enjoyable survey of baseball past and present, he’s certainly hit a clean triple."―The Winnipeg Free Press
"What a mind Andrew Forbes has, and how lucky we are that he's given over so much of it to thinking about baseball—sifting through its bottomless history for bits of gold, diving with gusto down its quirkiest rabbit holes. He's a five-tool talent, and with Field Work he stakes his claim as baseball's most indispensable folklorist. This collection of essays is the purest expression yet of his love for the game and the men who played it for a living."—Devin Gordon, author of So Many Ways to Lose
"As someone who likes to think about baseball from all manner of different angles, I found Field Work: On Baseball and Making a Living to be a compelling and energizing read. Not only does Andrew Forbes connect the present game to the history of labour relations, he reminds us that it all starts with grassroots baseball and regular fans, and that stats and balance sheets can only ever tell us part of the story."—Ben Nicholson-Smith, Sportsnet
"Canada’s resident baseball philosopher has done it again, offering a typically charming collection of quirky essays tying America’s pastime to universal facets of life, love and—as the title suggests—work. To read this Andrew Forbes book is to lose oneself in a world of baseball mysticism grounded in the decidedly un-mystic world of hard (and sometimes not-so-hard) labor. Savor it in pieces or gobble it down all at once; either way, you’ll be glad you did."—Jason Turbow, author of They Bled Blue
ISBN: 9781998336159
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
240 pages