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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
"Goddam, But Playing Baseball Is Fun", August 5, 2007
"Old-time baseball players and fans love to denigrate the modern ballplayer. "Baseball today is not what it should be," one old-timer once wrote. "The players do not try to learn all the fine points of the game as in the days of old, but simply try to get by. They content themselves if they get a couple of hits every day or play an errorless game... It's positively a shame, and they are getting big money for it, too."
Bill Joyce, 1916 Ballplayer
'The Golden Age of Baseball' began when players returned from the war until 1958, when the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants decided to continue their rivalry in California. That time saw many of the most memorable and significant events in the game's history: in 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier; that same year, the second Yankee Dynasty began with its first of ten pennants and eight championships in a twelve-year span; in 1951, Bobby Thomson hit the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" to win the pennant for the Giants; in 1954, Willie Mays made his spectacular World Series catch; in 1956, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history.
For those of us who are Boston Red Sox or New York Yankee fans, one of the biggest baseball rivalries in history, 'Summer of '49' explains much of the history and romance of these two teams. David Halberstam brings to us the glories, the rivalaries, the drinking, the social and personal stories of the players on both sides. The subject is the pennant race of 1949 between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox which wasn't decided until the last game of the season. Is there really any value to another book telling us what a legend Joe DiMaggio was, or what a great hitter Ted Williams was, or what a great team the Yankees were? Yes,indeedy.1949 was the perfect year, because it marked a turning point in the history of American sport, which is one reason why David Halberstam wrote this book. Baseball was the number one sport, but professional basketball and football were beginning to gain acceptance. Television was just beginning to make its mark. The impact of black ballplayers was only beginning to be felt.
David Halberstam brings us the day to day spotliughts of the Red Sox and Yankees for an entire year, from the end of the 1948 season through 1949. During the summer of '49, the two teams had one of the classic pennant races of all time. The Sox struggled at the beginning, while the Yankees, took a commanding early lead. But Boston chipped away at the lead until the final day of the season, when the two teams met to decide the pennant. Sound familiar? David Halberstam reveals the characters and gives us a glimpse of baseball during The Golden Age. He interviewed almost every living member of those teams and several people on the outside--fans, broadcasters, baseball executives, writers, relatives of players--over a hundred in all. The one interview he couldn't get, was from the most important member of the Yankees: Joe DiMaggio.
Each team was made up of twenty-five men, plus perhaps ten or twelve others who played a little. We are introduced to every one of them, the drinkers, womanizers, country boys, city boys, the marginal players for whom 1949 will be their only season of glory. We feel a part of the team, traveling with them between games. And at the end of the book, he tells us what has become of them.
In the conclusion, David Halberstam tells us how enjoyable it was to write this book, to interview his idols, to do research that many would consider fun. "I was the envy of my male friends who shared my enthusiasm for baseball in those years. Caught up in the more mundane tasks in journalism or Wall Street or the law, they would gladly have traded jobs with me."
"But probably the best reasons for Halberstam to choose 1949 were, first, that it was a terrific, dramatic pennant race between two hated rivals; and, second, perhaps most importantly, as he explains in the author's note, Halberstam was fifteen years old that summer and a devoted Yankee fan. The men he describes in his book were his heroes, and he lived and died with the fortunes of his favorite players." David Martinez
David Halberstam is gone now. However, his writing will live on, and those of us who loved his writing will remember him well.
What Summer of '49 does for me is to renew my love for baseball, and in particular, my love for the Boston Red Sox. Ted Williams, after reluctantly leaving the batting practice cage, once said, "Goddam, but this is fun. I could do this all day--and they pay me for it."
Highly Recommended. prisrob 8-05-07
The Best and the Brightest
Charlie Rose with Jules Witcover, David Halberstam & David Broder; Ann Druyan; Peter Balakian (July 18, 1997)
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
It's the perspective, July 4, 2005
David Halberstam's finest gift, among his many as a writer, is his ability to weave a wonderful, colorful, extremely important yet oft-ignored fabric called perspective out of the many-threaded and minute details he uses in his books. (An even better example is the way he swept away history book cliches and "Happy Days" gloss in "The Fifties," but that's another review for another day.)
In "Summer of '49," Halberstam not only gave us an engaging blow-by-blow of one of baseball's best pennant races, as well as some of the key minor players to accompany the all-star cast, he gave us a feel for why baseball was so important to so many people at the time. Even though the book is about two of the last Major League franchises to racially integrate (the Yankees in 1955, the Sox in '59), the crumbling of the color barrier works its way into the story nearly as deeply as the tales of the two teams' immigrants' sons (the DiMaggios, Pesky, Rizzuto). So do baseball's postwar popularity boom, the suburban flight that would soon force franchise shifts and expansion, and the dawn of the television age. The social perspective Halberstam sewed together is just as important, and colorful, as the fine drama that played out on the book's main stage.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
As baseball fades from relevance..., December 27, 2005
...books like this draw attention to baseball's checkered, but often glorious past. As baseball declines, the New York Yankees/Boston Red Sox rivalry has become the axis around which the sport revolves. While most fans know who hates whom, I'm not too aware of the history that surrounds the rivalry. For this 30 year old sports fan, I know Dimaggio was great and graceful and Ted Williams hit .400. Outside of that, the players of this era are part of a mythical past.
Halberstam's book does a masterful job of portraying the personalities of the two squads. He seems more comfortable describing the emotions these men felt than describing the actual play by play action. He clearly enjoyed writing this book and portraying the men he worshipped as a fifteen year old in suburban New York. Equally significant, he captures baseball at a crossroads in this book. Baseball wrestles with age in this book. He calls out both franchises for being behind the curve in drafting black players. He disdains George Weiss for being too miserly with salaries and George Yawkey for being to familiar with his players. Mel Allen's awkward transition from sterling radio announcer to grand old man of television seems to be a metaphor the growing pains baseball was making as it adjusted to the growing prevalence of television. From a modern perspective, it is shocking how George Weiss, the general manager of the Yankees, could be afraid that television would steal from the gate and the revenue of the team. Imagine how awestruck he would be at the New York Mets trying to rebuild their franchise based on the *future* revenue of a television network!
Ultimately, though this books succeeds because it describes the motivations and idiosyncracies of the players. Players struggle through injury and play with a passion often missing from today's star driven efforts. Men like Peskovich, Dom Dimaggio, Doerr, and Kinder were unknowns to me who I had a real liking for by the end of the book.
Perhaps the book could have been a little bit stronger if a baseball mind had some input, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I enjoyed this trip into baseball's past and strongly recommend to those interested in a readable tour through one of the era's highlights.
4 stars
--SD
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
About the times, the people, the baseball, February 17, 2005
This book doesn't just talk about baseball, but explores the psyche of the men who played and formed the game. An incredible history lesson of the times that will give a deeper understanding of just how great and how heartbreaking baseball really is.
Even if you aren't a fan of the Red Sox or Yankees or if 1949 isn't a part of your life, this is something for any student of the game. Of course, baseball is the main theme but it also ties in how much our culture is and was affected by it. And if you just want to learn more about DiMaggio or Williams, Halberstam offers great insight into the legendary players.
Even today, when it isn't the most popular sport in America, baseball still has sociological implications on society. I am definitely getting this for my dad.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A very good year, March 22, 2005
Mainly about the pennant race between the Yankees and Red Sox that year, focusing on the players that made it happen. Much is written about DiMaggio and Williams, of course, but Halberstam also deals with some pretty strange characters, like Ellis Kinder, a Sox pitcher who won 23 and lost only 6 games that year, who could only relax the day before working by getting drunk. The book is interesting and nostalgic--but real, too. Among the better baseball books out there.
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Yankees-Red Sox never sounded so gorgeous, April 19, 2007
Halberstam can perhaps be forgiven for focusing solely on the Yankees and Red Sox for the course of the book. The book is gripping, striking a fantastic balance between the games and the men who played them. If you're a fan of the baseball nostalgia genre, this is a must-read book.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
DiMaggio vs Williams, April 26, 2004
This very easily readable book is about the pennant race between perennial rivals Yankees and Red Sox. Half way through the season the Yankees lead the Red Sox by at least ten games but the Sox make an amazing comeback. The last game of the season will decide who will play the Dodgers in the World Series....Besides being a beautiful account of the 1949 season it is also a nice biography of all the players involved. An ailing Joe DiMaggio, a young Yogi Berra, a brilliant Williams and Kinder and Doerr. Great names from a great era. With this book Halberstam again has shown that in America serious historians can also write about baseball, America's national pasttime.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
The Best Look Back Into Baseball History, May 4, 2000
David Halberstam has created a wonderful look back into baseball history that can be enjoyed by baseball fans from all eras. I became a fan during the early 70's and had season tickets to the San Francisco Giants of the late 80's and early 90's, but this book made me wish I could go back in time to watch the great Yankee/Red Sox pennant race of 1949. I enjoyed this book so much and read it so many times, I had to get a second copy to loan out to friends and fellow fans.From the initial description of the end of the '48 season, through the epic World Series of '49, Halberstam draws the reader into the world of baseball in the time before big contracts and network television. The behind the scenes look at the players, both great and forgotten, is extraoridnary. For most fans, the names of Dimaggio and Williams are well known, and many can recite the great acheivments of their careers. But what makes this book so interesting is the inside look at the teams and the individuals who made up these teams. Reading about these players and the way the game impacted their lives was an incredible thrill. If you are a baseball fan, read this book. I guarantee you will love it, and will likely end up reading it again and again. Halberstam has written a masterpiece.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Baseball as it was (and isn't), June 6, 2005
Forget the Yankees an | |
