The Iowa Baseball Confederacy

"The Iowa Baseball Confederacy" is a novel written by W. P. Kinsella and was published in 1986.

Plot

The novel takes place in Iowa and is about a man named Gideon Clarke. Clarke is out on a quest to prove to the world that the Chicago Cubs traveled to Omnamata, Iowa in the summer of 1908 for a baseball game against the all-stars from the Iowa Baseball Confederacy, an amateur baseball league. This unheard-of game was a titantic struggle that turned out to be over 2,000 inning long. Gideon's father knew about this game also and tried to prove to the world that this game happened but he was not successful. Gideon Clarke is out to finds records or some proof that this legendary unknown baseball game did exist. Gideon also struggles with fidelity issues with his wife Sunny, who continues to leave him for other men. While walking down a train track with his friend, a triple-A outfielder by the name of Stan, they find themselves transported back to 1908 in Big Inning, on the field where the game was about to take place. After the Cubs arrived the next day, the game would begin. Gideon, lacking skin pigmentation and often mistaken for an albino, is used as the team's mascot, while Stan soon fills in for the Confederacy's right fielder. After the game reaches multiple extra innings with the score tied, both coaches decide to play until a victor is decided. The game is played by day, and during the evenings Gideon spends his time with Sarah, a farmer's daughter in the town of Big Inning. Soon it starts to constantly rain, but the coaches decide to continue the game regardless. Theodore Roosevelt, president at the time, shows up at the game, and so does Leonardo da Vinci in a hot air balloon, claiming to be the true inventor of baseball instead of the widely believed Abner Doubleday. Gideon soon find out the game is influenced by the power of the giant indian Drifting Away in order to fulfill a penance and be re-united with his wife. When Gideon finds out he will need to return home without Sarah if the Confederacy wins, as Drifting Away wants, a conflict ensues. The game also features real Cubs players at the time of the game, such as Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown. The Confederacy wins after more than 2,000 innings, and Gideon and Stan get transported a few years later, where Sarah gets hit by a car, the first car fatality in the county they would find out. Then they return to present day Onamata, where Sunny magically avoids getting killed by a trucker. Gideon meets again with Drifting away, who says he will see Gideon "after", meaning after Sarah died, on the ballfields of Onamata.

References

*Kinsella, W.P. (1986). "The Iowa Baseball Confederacy". New York: ISBN 0-395-38952-6