Summer of '49 [Paperback]

This was one of the first baseball books I ever read. I loved it, for its powerful evocations of the time, the emotions and personalities of the players, and the drama of the pennant race itself. (As an English guy with virtually no knowledge of baseball, of course I had no idea who was going to win at the end of the season, so to me, I guess it was kind of a thriller as well). I was genuinely sorry when the book ended.

It helped kindle a love of baseball in general, and the Boston Red Sox in particular, that has endured to this day. (In terms of the baseball, there is no doubt that this has enriched my life, in terms of the Red Sox, I sometimes wonder...)

A poignant tale, beautifully written, I would recommend it to anyone

I came across this book by accident while browsing through Borders and rarely has a purchase been better warranted.

This is a superb book, beautifilly written and exhaustively researched. It was so good that, having reached the last page, I went back to the beginning and began reading it again to soak up any details I may have missed.

I've been a fan of baseball for many years but am far from an expert. Yet this book is so accessible that it doesn't even matter if you are a baseball fan - it is as much a tribute to the era as to the giants that graced the game at the time both in Boston and New York.

There is no doubt this book was a labour of love for the author - it comes across in every chapter.

Very highly recommended - I'd have to say this ranks as one of the best sports books I've ever had the pleasure to read.

"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)