Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Great Regulars: Almost all his life Jack Kerouac had a hobby

that even close friends and fellow Beats like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs never knew about. He obsessively played a fantasy baseball game of his own invention, charting the exploits of made-up players like Wino Love, Warby Pepper, Heinie Twiett, Phegus Cody and Zagg Parker, who toiled on imaginary teams named either for cars (the Pittsburgh Plymouths and New York Chevvies, for example) or for colors (the Boston Grays and Cincinnati Blacks).

He collected their stats, analyzed their performances and, as a teenager, when he played most ardently, wrote about them in homemade newsletters and broadsides.

from Charles McGrath: The New York Times: Another Side of Kerouac: The Dharma Bum as Sports Nut
also The New York Times: 'Kerouac at Bat'

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