A Nice Tuesday

Well past the prime he never had, Jordan, at 56, realizes he still can't shake the game or the way the failure of not making it continues to haunt him. Setting out to confront his past, he tries stepping back into it, detailing moment by moment the excruciating process of struggling into shape for his shot to pitch a minor league game with the Waterbury Saints. At the same time, he also describes with painful precision what it takes to repair old wounds within the family. That both processes lead to a sense of peace with who he is and the journey his life has taken is the kind of stat that stands up favorably to any win-loss record.

Jordan is a powerful writer, his prose riding carefully controlled waves of muscularity, tenderness, understanding, and insight. Sports may be his arena here, but metaphysics is his game. "In our late fifties," he writes of himself and his wife, "we lived our lives in a Twilight Zone. We were both young and old. With one hand we held on to our fading youth, bikini thongs and pitching baseballs.... We both knew that the days of our youth were closing fast." What Jordan makes clear throughout A Nice Tuesday is that hearing the footsteps of time approaching isn't tantamount to being overtaken by them. --Jeff Silverman

Product Description

I am moving on to A False Spring with anticipation...


Better Than Any Baseball Book   November 7, 2003
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This book is not about baseball, and it is not a sequel to "A False Spring," which was a classic in its own right. It is also not about dogs, cigars, fast cars or South Florida, although all of those things figure prominently in the book. Instead, "A Nice Tuesday" is a deeper, fuller portrait of an unusually talented guy living out his life as best he can despite a nagging feeling that he has failed.

That may not sound particularly interesting, but Pat Jordan himself is a far better subject than 99% of the atheletes he usually writes about. He is an intelligent guy, with a wide range of interests. His writing captures that struggle we all go through of being able to perceive our shortcomings and only have limited success trying to change them. But, at least he does try. In this book, he's completely unafraid to reveal himself through his writing.

Beyond this, Jordan is a very skilled writer. He has a great sense of judgment as to what will capture and keep the reader's attention. He doesn't abuse this gift by lingering on his stories too long. There are dozens of memorable scenes and vignettes in this book, but it does not come off as being choppy or disorganized. The connections make sense to Jordan, and he convinces the reader that they should make sense.

Although this is non-fiction, the book "A Nice Tuesday" resembles most closely is "The World According to Garp" by John Irving. I mean that as a compliment; Garp is one of my favorite books of all time. For me, the similarities are in how Jordan and Garp are both fascinating individuals who have improbable life experiences -- much more interesting than the rest of us -- develop a unique way of looking at life, surround themselves with unusual, even quirky companions and still manage to come off as average guys. Just as John Irving novels have wrestling, dancing bears, New England prep schools and scenes in Vienna, Austria, Pat Jordan's life has baseball, dogs, cigars and Florida. We can relate to these elements, but the books are more than the sum of the elements. Neither Irving's novels nor Jordan's memoir are about these things. They just give the writer an excuse to display talent, skill and a unique way of looking at the world.

"A Nice Tuesday" also conveys Jordan's sense of inevitable doom -- this obviously comes from the heart -- which reminds me of the "Under Toad" in Garp. Jordan knows that he always drives the people he loves away from him, but can't figure out why and can't seem to stop the process. How honest and uncommon to admit this secret fear that so many of us have.

A Nice Tuesday is an excellent choice for any adult reader, male or female, young, middle aged or old. It has humor, insight and poignancy. It is much more rewarding than any sports book I have ever read and should not be cheapened by that label. It would have been just as good a book if he had not pitched in the minor league game.


Extended Inning Classic   June 26, 2002
It must have been my lucky day when I found this gem in a remainder bin. I picked it to peruse from idle curiosity about the cover and title, not because I knew anything about Pat Jordan. Boy, was I ever ignorant.

I read a sentence, then a paragraph, then a page, and when hypnotized, I didn't want to stop there; so I bought it for the quality of its prose. I couldn't wait to start reading from the front and found it as funny, and occasionally profound, as it was well written.

First off, this is a memoir or autobiography written by someone that knows a lot about baseball, not a baseball book per se. Only the extremely obtuse would read it solely in the context of some imagined "baseball comeback" genre. The "Nice Tuesday" of the title is the day the author works towards in all his life relationships...baseball paralleling the personal stuff.

Jordan reflects on his Connecticut childhood, brief baseball celebrity, drag racing, gambling, father/son, brother/brother, dogs, Florida, writing, aging and yes, pitching with this engaging narrative. Above all else it is a book about how a man works out how to handle himself within the context of family (for better or worse) and career. It's a book about how to write the script of your own life. I don't know whether I'd get along with Jordan, the man, but he is a gifted, intelligent, honest writer.

In spirit, a Cross between Jim Bouton's classic 'Ball Four' and a novel by Hemingway of Salter. As soon as I finished this book I ordered his earlier work "A False Spring" and forced a close friend to read my copy of "A Nice Tuesday." Don't be afraid to pay full price, it's worth twice the cover!


Loved It!   February 2, 2000
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I know nothing about baseball and did not need to. This was a great story about the authors' interesting life. I highly recommend this book.