Summary Of From Father With Love Goodwin

In From Father, with Love by Doris Kearns Goodwin the carefree bond between a father and a daughter is made through the game of baseball, which accompanies her throughout the entire cycle of life. Goodwin states, “the game of baseball has always been linked in my mind with mystic texture of childhood…”As a child she acquires that “mystical link” to her father when she accompanies him for the very first time at the Ebbets Field in Brooklyn where he shares cherished memories about his favorite team, the Dodgers. Their relation allows her father to quench his nostalgia and reminisce in his exciting childhood by sharing his common interest with an unlikely audience and fellow devotee. As a result of her fathers passing their bond is extinguished
as well as all fastenings to her childhood. Doris says, “so the seasons of my childhood passed until that miserable summer when the Dodgers were taken away to Los Angeles” Her childhood has completely dwindled along with the team loyalty that first began her fervid relationship with her father. Irony plays a part in this because both baseball and her life have seasons, which changes her life in two very different senses at the same time. When Goodwin encounters a baseball player, Carlton Fisk, she gains a sense of reconnection to her childhood. The prior respect and admiration affiliated with her father is now bestowed on Carlton who rekindles her passion for baseball. “There I was, a professor at Harvard, accustomed to speaking with presidents of the united States, and yet, standing beside this young man in a baseball uniform, I was speechless;” even though she is an established adult and a professor at a prestigious school she is brought back to a juvenile state of mind with mixed emotions and awe when she is face to face with this idol of hers. In the midst of Doris’ parenthood there is a connection of generations because of the link between her and her sons, which relates to the ties she had with her father. “For in this linkage between the generations rests the magic of baseball, a game that has defied the ravages of modern life, a game that is still played today by the same basic rules and at the same pace as sit was played one hundred years ago;” even though she faced many obstacles and physical changes in life she was able to rely on the fact that the game stays the same.