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John Bellairs once said his favorite sport was baseball and it shows throughout his books as his characters play games of flies and grounders in neighborhood parks or watch big league games with thousands of cheering fans.
Growing up in Marshall, Bellairs was a fan of the Detroit Tigers, later listening to games while studying at Notre Dame. When he moved to New England he transferred his allegiance to the nearby Boston Red Sox and although his interest in the sports in his later years would decline, it never really disappeared. He was, however, no athlete in his youth, much like Lewis Barnavelt, who must be taught to properly throw a softball [The House with a Clock in its Walls, 44-6]. Bellairs' childhood friend from Marshall, Douglas Thunder, relates that in real life he was the one who had the privilege of teaching John to throw the softball.
Teams
Bellairs mentions a number of professional baseball teams, usually those close to either Duston Heights, Massachusetts or New Zebedee, Michigan:
- Boston Red Sox
- Chicago Cubs
- Chicago White Sox
- Cleveland Indians
- Detroit Tigers
- New York Giants
- New York Yankees
In addition, there are a few local teams casually mentioned, such as Duston Heights Spiders which Henry Dixon played for back around 1901.
Players
A number of baseball players from the 1950s are mentioned throughout the texts, usually as part of the discussions Johnny, Fergie, Lewis, or Rose Rita are having. For example, when Fergie and Johnny first met they had a very long conversation about baseball players with disabilities like Mordecai Brown and Monty Stratton:
- DiMaggio, Dominic
- DiMaggio, Joe
- Kell, George
- Lajoie, Nap
- Mantle, Mickey
- Mungo, Van Lingle
- Sockalexis, Louis
- Torgeson, Earl
- Vollmer, Clyde
- Wambsganss, Bill
- Williams, Ted
- Young, Cy
One wonders if Bellairs borrowed some of the names from his baseball trivia book (e.g. Mordecai Brown and Honus Wagner) when it came time to name some of his auxiliary characters, such as Mordecai Hunks and Florence Zimmermann's late husband, Honus.
Even baseball came to the Southern Kingdom: Prospero’s Magic Mirror transmits a major league game and, earlier, Roger Bacon used Smead Jolley’s name to illustrate a point to a deaf head of brass.
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| John Bellairs playing a game of catch near the grounds of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry (1968). |
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