A Simple Softball Story With Universal Themes

Your cover story featuring senior-softball player John Meeden was excellent (“The Unnatural Natural,” by J.R. Moehringer, Oct. 9). It ties into the nostalgia for baseball (neighborhood softball, in this case) and the zeitgeist of our present and recent past. The story also makes reference to Holy Rollers, which brings to mind dysfunctions in close-knit American religion, and it shows how Meeden’s nervous breakdown could have haunted him, not allowing him to say “no” to an activity. Interestingly, Moehringer is on to something that is as much a sign of our 21st century as it was of the 1st century: What we don’t like is not always bad for us.

John Rubens

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Maybe Moehringer should swap gigs with Dan Neil. Moehringer didn’t need more than 800 words for his “simple story.” I stayed with him to the end hoping his story would develop, but it never did. No trapdoors, no surprises.

Kate Yarbrough

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