Photographs striking in ‘Rain Check’

Page 84 is what grabbed me about the oversize paperback book “Rain Check: Baseball in the Pacific Northwest” (Society for American Baseball Research, 128 pages, $14.95).

It shows Tommy Davis, who would go on to fame as a Los Angeles Dodger, in full stretch, a couple of feet above the ground, looking into the camera while snaring – seemingly – a ball hit to the wall.

The photo is posed (no one could get that close in a real game), but it takes away nothing of the drama. Davis, who is wearing the uniform of the Spokane Indians, likely made many such plays for real in 1959 when he roamed right field for the Indians.

“Rain Check,” which was edited by Mark Armour, contains 22 stories, all based on the real teams that played Pacific Northwest baseball dating back to 1883.

Jim Price, a former Spokesman-Review staffer, contributed four of them – which is fitting, as he is one of the region’s most knowledgeable baseball historians.

Dan Raley, a longtime sportswriter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, wrote a story titled “A man named Sick made Seattle well,” a profile of Seattle Rainiers owner Emil Sick.

Dave Larson, author of the book “Wide Awakes, Invincibles & Smokestackers,” wrote a piece titled “Brooklyn Dodgers were no match for high-flying Gulls.”

Larry Stone, baseball writer for the Seattle Times, wrote about the days of the Pacific Coast League in a story titled “Those were the most wonderful days I believe I ever had.”

Jim Bouton, author of “Ball Four,” is the subject of a piece penned by Mark Armour, a writer living in Corvallis, Ore. And then Bouton told his own story in “Buses, beer and emboldened batboys,” a piece that appeared originally in the Portland Oregonian.

Still, as interesting as the stories are, it’s the book’s photos that make it particularly worth checking out.

Especially impressive is the collection of photos of ballparks in Seattle, Tacoma, Wenatchee, Aberdeen, Yakima, Salem, Spokane and Vancouver, B.C.

And, of course, there’s the shot of Davis.

Rockin’ review

On July 27, Greg Spatz’s novel “Fiddler’s Dream” got a good review on National Public Radio.

Spatz, a professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University, had his book reviewed by Alan Cheuse, who teaches at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

“When a gifted writer finds the language to combine a love of music and a knowledge of music, something just clicks,” Cheuse said.

The novel tells the story about a young mandolin player named Jesse who, having gone on the road in search of his father and to find his way as a musician, “becomes enamored” with a violin refurbished by a woman friend.

“And even before he takes off for south of Memphis and his father’s new address, you know that he and that instrument are going to make beautiful music together,” Cheuse said.

“You hear it in Spatz’s prose every time Jesse begins to play, by himself or in jam sessions with some of Nashville’s finest. And this novel about finding one’s vocation and finding reconciliation, it too jams right along to its minor key but satisfying conclusion.”

You can hear Cheuse read the whole review by going online at www.npr.org/templates/story/story .php?storyId=5587591.

Good for the ‘Soul’

Coeur d’Alene writer Joel Robert Doherty has had a story included in “Chicken Soup for the Scrapbooker’s Soul,” which is supposed to be on bookshelves Monday.

Doherty’s story is titled “Confessions of a Scrapbooker’s Husband.”

Book talk

“Modern Fiction Book Club (“Zorro: A Novel,” by Isabel Allende), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Valley Barnes & Noble, 15312 E. Indiana Ave. (509-922-4014).

“Auntie’s Youth Book Group (“Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy,” by Gary D. Schmidt), 2 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (509-838-0206).

The reader board

“Joan Opyr (“Idaho Code”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

“Frank Zafiro (“Under a Raging Moon”), signing, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Field of Beans, 5520 N. Maple (509-327-5090).