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120–130 MPHThe speed of a ball thrown by Babylonian-American pitcher Gil Gamesh that hits an umpire, resulting in a two-year suspension.

$3 MILLIONThe highest amount ever paid for an MLB game ball (Mark McGwire’s 70th home run of the 1998 season).

The Art of Fielding (2011)

The Westish Harpooners’ Henry Skrim-shander nears a fictional college record for consecutive errorless games, until an errant throw sends his fortunes awry.

“To field a ground ball must be considered a generous act and an act of comprehension. One moves not against the ball but with it. Bad fi elders stab at the ball like an enemy. … The true fi elder lets the path of the ball

become his own path…”

“That’s why he was here, to surrender himself to longing, to listen to his host recite the anecdotal texts ... stories that

Marvin had been collecting for half a century—the deep eros

of memory that separates baseball from other sports.”

The Great American Novel (1973)

Philip Roth’s absurdist history of the fictional Patriot League, which operated alongside the National and American leagues until 1943.

“‘Never heard of the Tri-City Tycoons? Never heard of the

Ruppert Mundys?’ ‘Nope.’ ‘You never heard of Kakoola,

Aceldama, Asylum?’ ‘What are those?’ ‘Cities, boy! Those are

big league towns!’”

105 MPHThe fastest-ever MLB pitch, by then–Cincinnati Red Aroldis Chapman, in 2010.

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$32.45The amount Bobby Thomson’s home run ball sold for in the novel. (The real ball was never recovered.)

31The length of shortstop Henry Skrimshander’s streak of consecutive errorless games.

110The MLB record for consecu-tive errorless games by a shortstop, held by the Baltimore Orioles’ Mike Bordick.

Underworld (1997)

Two famous shots—a pennant-winning home run and the USSR’s first nuclear weapon—are heard around the world in Don DeLillo’s postmodern novel.

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