Author's page:
https://www.bhcpress.com/Books_Morgenstein_A_Mound_Over_Hell.html
Tryout video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQWqvq_cha8&t=13s
Now, here are our questions for Gary and his answers:
FenwayNation: "Since you've written about baseball in the context of a dystopian world, how do you view the fate of baseball in the current COVID-19 crisis?"
Gary: "It’ll be interesting to see how much fans missed baseball as a barometer of the game’s place in a relieved country. In my novel, disgraced baseball, facing its final season ever in 2098, represents the once powerful America which lost World War Three. Increasingly fans view the sport as belonging to a past which no longer exists. There’s a reason why baseball is rarely portrayed in science fiction (excluding fantasy stories like Field of Dreams). Writers simply don’t think the game will make the cut into the future. Once we return to normal, does the country embrace its familiar pillars like baseball? I think in the short term they will, but let’s say attendance is down, which’d be understandable. There has to be lingering uneasiness about abandoning social distancing. Do we only allocate so many seats per section? Discounts on streaming services? Lower ticket and concession prices? How does baseball reach out, especially when the increasing bulk of its fan base are older? Do owners return to the halcyon days of colorful promotions a la the iconic Bill Veeck or the inventive minor leagues (if the owners don’t destroy them first) to make baseball a safe environment – emotionally – that we all recall as kids to reassure everyone that America’s back? There can’t be appeals to patriotism like the aftermath of 9/11. The virus knows no borders. I wonder if post-crisis America, from waiting on lines, self-imposed isolation and not having texts answered inside eight seconds, might show more patience for baseball."
