Baseball In Fiction: William Faulkner

About a month ago, I quoted a brief baseball-related snip from Mark Helprin's novel Memoir From Antproof Case. I asked about other examples of baseball mentioned in non-sports novels, and a few books were mentioned in comments.

Here's one that was not mentioned. In William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Jason Compson is discussing the American League pennant race with the owner of a cigar store:

"Well," Mac says, "I reckon you've got your money on the Yankees this year."

"What for?" I says.

"The Pennant," he says. "Not anything in the League can beat them."

"Like hell there's not," I says. "They're shot," I says. "You think a team can be that lucky forever?"

"I don't call it luck," Mac says.

"I wouldn't bet on any team that fellow Ruth played on," I says. "Even if I knew it was going to win."

"Yes?" Mac says.

"I can name you a dozen men in either League who're more valuable than he is," I says.

"What have you got against Ruth?" Mac says.

"Nothing," I says. "I haven't got any thing against him. I don't even like to look at his picture."

Faulker's advice to a young writer?

Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window.