Playboy Story from Late 70s, Early 80s

February 29, 2016 5:16 PM

I'm looking for a short story published in Playboy in the 70s or 80s. Back in 1980 or 1981 I visited my brother in college and snagged a Playboy from his fraternity house. I was, of course, most interested in the pictures but I was also fascinated with writing stories and reading fiction. I was 12 and had discovered short fiction earlier in the year.

I have no clue which naked women were in the edition I'm thinking of, but there was a story about a baseball player who had been great his entire life until he flamed out in the major leagues. The story is set with this player watching a great Little League pitcher and commenting on how hard the kid's life would be.

At the same time, I read Catcher in the Rye and loved the voice of Holden. The first serious (though appalling) fiction I ever wrote was a rewrite of this Playboy short story in the voice of Holden Caufield. It made me think I could be a writer, and while my writing is mostly essays and newspieces these days, I still want to revisit that story.

So if anyone is a collector, could you go back to 1978-1981 and see if you can find a baseball story in a Playboy? I'd love to read it again, and see if my 48 year old brain is impressed as my 12 year old brain was.

posted by nathanrudy to Society & Culture (1 answer total)

For $8 you could subscribe for one month to iplayboy.com, which is a searchable archive of every issue of Playboy, including the articles. I have never subscribed so I can't vouch for the quality or ease of searching.
posted by ejs at 5:53 PM on February 29, 2016 [1 favorite]