I read Over the Edge by Jay Johnstone and Rick Talley as a child who was definitely too young to be reading it. My parents, I think, had no idea that it was as adult a book as it was when they got it for me, and I will be forever grateful for their lack of understanding.
I loved that book, and I one hundred percent believe that my reading of it set me on a path towards the crooked and questionable sense of humour that I have today. In the last couple weeks, I’ve also read the prequel to Over the Edge, Temporary Insanity, as well as the final book in the series, Some of My Best Friends Are Crazy. I have no idea why it took me so long to do this, because all of them are tremendous, especially Temporary Insanity.
The characters that inhabit these books are actual Major League Baseball players, coaches, managers, umpires, broadcasters, groundskeepers, and everything else (loosely at times) associated with the game. And at least half of them were crazy. Like completely batshit crazy. The stories that Johnstone tells have inspired me to stop being such a lazy fuck and to start blogging here again. Because sports are supposed to be fun. People are allowed to have fun, and we should laugh a little at (and with) the crazy ones.
This game’s fun, ok? Fun, goddammit.
Uh-Oh, Rexy 