The Only Way Is the Steady Way: Essays on Baseball, Ichiro, and How We Watch the Game

Essays about baseball’s past, present, and future–and the wisdom of Ichiro Suzuki

The Only Way Is the Steady Way
is a baseball memoir in scorecards and baseball cards, a recollection
of the game’s biggest stars and outlandish personalities, and
introspective letters to a legendary player. These essays examine the
meaning of baseball across international borders and at all levels of
the game–from Little League diamonds to big league ballparks. Parents
learn unexpected lessons at t-ball, cheap souvenirs reveal their hidden
significance, and baseball’s beating heart is exposed through sharply
beautiful observations about the history of the game. Forbes locates
peace, reassurance, and a way to measure the passage of time with home
run bonanzas, old games on YouTube, and especially in the unique career
of beloved outfielder Ichiro Suzuki.

Just as he did in The Utility of Boredom,

Forbes shows us how a summertime distraction might help us to make
sense of the world, and how a certain enigmatic Japanese superstar
offers a surprising ethos for living.

Andrew Forbes’s essays are cool and clear and may well slake the thirst of any thinking baseball fan. –Rob Neyer, author of Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game

Transcendent prose. –Shelf Awareness