It’s about 1905 and I’m down at the store looking at the new five cent novels that just came in. I love the covers, they’re so bright and bold, with exciting scenes from the ballpark on them. I can just afford one today, and I think the Work And Win title looks a little too much like the Horatio Alger novels I was forced to read by my dad. I think I’ll go for the Weekly Athlete because the color is so unusual. It doesn’t matter about the story. They are all the same. In fact, that is why I like these stories so much – they are all predictable. The tales are laid out in exactly the same way every time – the hero, the villain, the turmoil, the resolution – always the same. You might find that boring, but for some reason I find it reassuring. The hero, who is true, hard-working and honest, defeats the scurrilous, cheating, representative of poor sportsmanship. Every time. It’s nice when we can see justice served, even if it is fiction.
