Without a doubt, John Updike will be remembered for writing more serious literature than “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.”But Updike’s famous farewell to Ted Williams, written on the occasion of his last game, appeared immediately on the web yesterday after his death was announced. And it speaks volumes about what we consider worth remembering, and about the emphasis we put on sports.Updike’s literature will be discussed at length in the next few days ? as it should be. But as long as we’re including his paean to “Teddy Ballgame” in the discussion, let’s broaden the scope and consider the many ways sports has served as the backdrop for some of our most memorable literary moments.Updike’s best line in the Williams piece – aside from calling Fenway a “lyric little bandbox of a ballpark” – was the last one: “He had met the little death that awaits athletes. He had quit.”There just really isn’t any other way to put it. Whether you’re Ted Williams or Ted Uelander, you’ll to have to walk away eventually. And maybe, without knowing it, Updike was also commenting on those athletes who try to cheat that little death by hanging around too long – the way Willie Mays did.It makes you appreciate guys like Larry Bird – who have the grace to simply retire when they can no longer meet their own standards, let alone ours.Using sports to make larger statements about life isn’t anything new. Poet A.E. Housman wrote “To An Athlete Dying Young” in the 1800s. Ernest Hemingway’s work was filled with sports references, most notably in “The Old Man and the Sea.” How many books have been written about Babe Ruth?John Irving uses baseball and basketball as props to spin a poignant and intriguing yarn in “A Prayer for Owen Meany.” Chaim Potok introduced the two main characters in “The Chosen” (which deals, in part, with the conflict between Jewish cultures over the creation of the state of Israel), at a playground baseball game.”In “Seven Days in May,” a thriller about an attempted coup, conspirators used a dummy gambling pool for the Preakness to keep track of the players.(Horse racing, by the way, is where many clichés find their origins, including “chomping at the bit,” “down to the wire,” and “frontrunner.”)Authors eager to connect their more serious points to their readers have always found an effective conduit in sports. That speaks volumes about how much sports help define our culture.How else was Paul Simon going to pine for a simpler time, while lamenting the increasing cynicism of the 1960s, but to ask: “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”Word has it that Joltin’ Joe wasn’t happy when he heard his name in a rock song. Someone had to explain to him that Simon and Garfunkel were associating him with the innocence of the ’50s ? lost forever in the milieu of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.Mickey Mantle got it, though. The Mick once asked Simon why he didn’t use his name instead of DiMaggio’s. Said Simon, “Joe DiMaggio fit the meter. Mickey Mantle didn’t.”RIP, John Updike.Steve Krause is Sports Editor of The Item.