OLD WELL WELL BY ZANE GRAY A BASEBALL STORY
1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales
Jon Hagadorn
4.5 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Old Well-Well" is a classic baseball short story by Zane Grey, first published in the July 1910 issue of Success magazine.
Summary
The story follows the legendary figure of "Old Well-Well," an elderly man famous throughout the East as the ultimate baseball fan. He is recognized by his unique, thunderous yell of "Well, well, well!" which he bellows at critical moments in games.
The narrative focuses on a high-stakes professional game where a young, unproven player named Burt faces off against an experienced veteran pitcher, Duveen. As the game reaches a fever pitch and the crowd erupts in "bedlam," Old Well-Well's iconic cry serves as a unifying force for the spectators. The story is less about the technical play-by-play and more about the vibrant culture and spirit of early 20th-century baseball, portraying it as a "national game" that connects people across generation
Enjoy all the Zane Gray baseball stories at 1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales at your favorite host or at www.bestof1001stories.com. Reviews appreciated and so is sharing !
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Welcome back everyone to one thousand one classic short stories and tales. |
| 0:32.2 | It's time for another Zane Gray baseball story. |
| 0:35.4 | A little bit about Zane Gray. |
| 0:39.3 | He was born into a family that immigrated to the American colonies in 1673 and grew up in Zanesville, Ohio, a town founded by and named |
| 0:46.1 | after his maternal great-grandfather, who was an American Revolutionary War patriot named |
| 0:51.1 | Ebenezer Zane. He was an avid reader, among his favorite adventures, Robinson Crusoe, James Fenimore Cooper's |
| 0:59.7 | leather-stocking tales, and dime novels featuring Buffalo Bill. |
| 1:05.1 | No wonder he became so fascinated with history, particularly the American West, for its |
| 1:09.8 | far-reaching opportunities, danger, |
| 1:12.3 | and intrigue. As a writer, Zane Gray was recognized as an iconic voice of the Western genre |
| 1:18.6 | and the American frontier. He was also a great writer of baseball and sport fishing. His most |
| 1:25.8 | famous novel is the popular American western, Writers of the Purple |
| 1:29.1 | Sage. Many of his works had a second life. A hundred and twelve movies and at least one |
| 1:36.0 | television series were adapted from his stories. Old Well Well, which was first published in the |
| 1:42.3 | July 1910 issue of success. |
| 1:45.7 | He wrote a number of baseball stories for magazines, later publishing a collection in which this story was included, titled The Red-Headed Outfield and Other Stories, |
| 1:54.4 | some of which you'll find in our archives now at 1001 Classic Short Stories and Tales. |
| 2:02.1 | And just to let you know, |
| 2:04.5 | we have a wonderful baseball story by Edna Ferber, |
| 2:07.9 | playing this week at 1001 Greatest Love Stories. |
| 2:12.1 | And now Old Well, well, by Zeng Gray. |
| 2:16.6 | He bought a ticket at the 25-cent window, |
... |
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