Kenneth Goldsmith

Sports Kenneth Goldsmith

Poetry. SPORTS, the last of Kenneth Goldsmith's American trilogy (THE WEATHER, TRAFFIC, and SPORTS), is a complete radio transcription of the longest nine inning Major League Baseball game on record. As with the rest of the trilogy, Goldsmith's exact parsing of language is used to articulate an unfolding narrative. Nothing is left out: in SPORTS we hear every utterance and stumble of the announcers as well as each ad broadcast during the game. It is said that in a normal two and a half hour baseball game, approximately eight minutes of action occurs; this game--the New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox from August of 2006--lasts nearly five hours, doubling the language, leaving the broadcasters a seeming eternity to fill with a parade of endless statistics and in-booth repartee. As the narrative grinds on and the hours pass, a claustrophobic sense of despair descends upon the booth. Tomorrow? asks one broadcaster. I think we're all writing opuses for tomorrow.