Makeshift Fields is a snapshot of grassroots baseball in Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales. Played as it is in the rain and cold, on temporary diamonds that are sometimes less than ideal, baseball is still fragile in these places. This book is the story of people who love the game, the story of people who believe that baseball can flourish where it's been planted, with each location contributing its own idiosyncrasies.
On one hand, baseball is baseball, and what is depicted is not dissimilar to what one might see in North America. On the other hand, it feels different. More precarious, yes, but also more communal. This is baseball played for its own sake, played in public parks by people who have fallen in love with the game, or people who are searching for a piece of home.
About the Author :
Dale Jacobs is the author of Graphic Encounters: Comics and the Sponsorship of Multimodal Literacy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), On Comics and Grief (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2024), and the co-author (with Heidi LM Jacobs) of 100 Miles of Baseball: Fifty Games, One Summer (Biblioasis, 2021). He lives in Windsor, Ontario and teaches at the University of Windsor.
Review :
Praise for Makeshift Fields:
“Nothing lost in the translation or the transportation of ideas in these three gems. We’ll refrain from the urge to create a haiku-like summation, and bank instead on the idea that all three are composed in matter-of-fact, straight-forward reporting style. Not a lot of fluff or excess verbiage. Sticking to the point, and sticking the landing. […] Makeshift Fields makes the readers feel as if they are right in the middle of something special in a land not so far away, and maybe it’s worth taking a trip, in the other direction from Japan, to see what the starting point of all this can still look like.”—Tom Hoffarth, The Drill
Praise for 100 Miles of Baseball: Fifty Games, One Summer:
“Inspired … They soulfully documented a 2018 road trip to the obscurest of ‘play ball’ destinations, all within a limited radius … The married authors complement each other—he’s the play-by-play guy; she, the colour commentator.”—Globe & Mail
“Their account is presented in each writer’s voice, alternating throughout the text, and is an effective way to describe the games and their reactions to them … Together they present a full, absorbing account of any level of ball, making the point that the precision of the major leagues and the error-prone play in the minors all contain the same elements … A solid win for the authors, who rediscovered a genuine joy in watching baseball wherever it is played.”—Winnipeg Free Press
“Dale Jacobs and Heidi LM Jacobs wrote this book to renew their love of baseball, and reading it will renew yours. Together they successfully capture the ritual, romanticism, and enduring beauty of this beloved game, with a back-to-basics approach that will appeal to self-proclaimed experts and perceived outsiders alike. At its core, 100 Miles of Baseball is about endurance, nostalgia, hope, and gratitude, and is a book that handily affirms the game’s very best rule–that baseball is for everyone.”—Stacey May Fowles, author of Baseball Life Advice
“In 2018, Dale Jacobs and Heidi LM Jacobs set out on the quixotic mission to take in fifty baseball games, from high school parks to the major leagues, in an effort to recapture the magic of the sport as seen live from the stands. Most of the games were played in Michigan and Southern Ontario, but this account will delight any true fan of any team, anywhere. The unexpected twists and turns of the season—like a meaty novel—can disrupt expectations and break hearts at any time. This book is timely, because it explains why the Covid-disrupted sixty-game MLB season in 2020 was so unsatisfying. In sixty games, there was simply no time or space for the joy and redemption this book captures so vividly.”—Susan Jacoby, author of Why Baseball Matters
