Baseball murders basketball

Kim Malo

Honestly, they're playing better of late, so it's not the burning desire for a quick roster fix that has me contemplating murder as I leave the arena. But it was one of those games with too many stretches of ugly (Have they ever checked if some of the guys who send half their passes to the wrong team might be colorblind? I'm just saying…), so for distraction I was trying to figure out once again why there are so many more baseball mysteries than basketball ones.

I know, I know, baseball is already all about the stories, as the announcers reminisce to fill in the copious time between plays (I "watch" mostly over the radio, where you really do get some great storytellers). And of course there are serious issues with trying to develop a plot that requires people 7" tall to sneak around unobtrusively to commit mayhem.

But still, basketball has plenty of drama, passion, money, sex, ambition, jealousy and all the other standard reasons for murder. Players used to be called cagers because they literally had to play in a sort of court-sized cage to protect them from the fans. No one's been killed with a fastball on the court, but there are famous examples of mayhem from Kevin McHale's closeline of Curt Rambis to Kermit Washington's not far from fatal punchout of Rudy Tomjanovich. And there's certainly room for mayhem off the court, witness the stabbing that nearly ended Boston Celtic Paul Pierce's career and life, or the recent weapons in the Washington Wizard's lockerroom.

Regardless, basketball doesn't seem to hold the same appeal for mystery writers. There are the a handful of somewhat obscure one offs, like Michael Katz's Murder off the Glass out there. And Otto Penzler had an enjoyable short story anthology a year or two back titled Murder at the Foul Line, which showed some of the range of possibilities for basketball and murder. Probably the nearest to a series would be Harlen Coben's books featuring sports agent Myron Bolitar, since Myron played briefly for the Celtics before blowing out a knee. But only Fade Away and One False Move are about basketball to any real degree.

Compare that to all the series and one offs there have been about baseball, from Troy Soos' historical series featuring Mickey Rawlings to Alison Gordon's wonderful series set up in Toronto and featuring one of the first female beat writers, through a more recent standalone title set during the Red Sox' 2007 championship season - Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith and Jere Smith - which even has Big Papi playing a cameo. With lots and lots in between, including a number of books and series featuring former baseball players turned detective, such as Richard Rosen's Harvey Blissberg mysteries. I love basketball and only like baseball, but to my frustration, my bookshelves pretty accurately reflect what's out there for both.

So what IS it about baseball that makes it so much more likely to drive people to murder? The pace? The people involved (I'd actually think the culture around basketball has more violence, or more common violence. And that's without getting into players like Gilbert Arenas and his confusing the locker room with a gun storage facility)? Basketball fans are less apt to be writers? Something as simple as marketing and the belief that there's more of a market for baseball mysteries?

I dunno, but plotting to do something about it might give me relief during the next extended streak of the uglies on the court in front of me… Sigh, I realize they call them free throws as if they're worthless, but trust me, you still get a point for every one you actually make, two points if you make two. Getting back to murder as a way of revamping the roster….

Comments

[Maria]

Maybe all that angst is worked out on the court running back and forth (or punching coaches in the nose.) Although I think there is definitely room for a story behind confusing your locker with a gun storage cabinet...

[Kim Malo]

Ooh, good one. I forgot about the Nellie abuse ; )