>>7686144

Just learn. It's really not very complicated to know how baseball works.

>>7686144
The prologue is the only part of the book that deals with the mechanics of baseball, so yes and no in that baseball is a recurring theme but you don't necessarily need to know baseball to *get* the rest of the novel.

That being said baseball is pretty easy to understand. Children play it.

It doesn't matter much whether you understand the intro or not.

It's pretty boring, though, despite some people hailing it as great. I never understood that. Good book, though, lots of interesting bits in it.

>>7686144
>>7686197
Me again. The main thing to know is that the game depicted is one of the most famous baseball games in history, especially so because baseball was far more popular in the 50s than it is now.

The Brooklyn Dodgers and the NY Giants (both teams have sinned moved to LA and SF respectively) were playing to win the National League pennant. There are two leagues in MLB, the national league and the American League. In that era, before the current playoff system was adopted, the team with the best record from each league played each other in the World Series. The Giants and the Dodgers had the same record, and this game would decide who would go on to the World Series.

The game is especially notable, not only for its spectacular result, because it was the first nationally televised game and because it was on the radio around the world where many people (primarily US servicemen) heard it.

The Yankees went on to win the World Series that season.

>>7686248
Wow thanks for bringing this up. Like I said I don't know much about baseball or its history. Now that seems like a pretty important thematic element (first to be televised), especially knowing delillo and his interest in mass media.

Seems like an interesting setup now for what I imagine might be a cosmopolitan narrative. I took a peak ahead and saw it takes place over several decades.