1947, When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball

Former Brooklyn Dodgers announcer Red Barber (1908-1992) captures the feel of baseball with this tense account of the 1947 season. Focusing almost exclusively on the year's two pennant winners (Dodgers, Yankees), the author teaches quite a bit about those two talented and colorful New York franchises. The year 1947 saw Jackie Robinson break the color line (against some strident opposition), and large attendances in a prosperous year of post-war peace. Barber has a readable style and many memorable tales to tell. Readers learn about top players like Robinson, Pete Reiser, Joe DiMaggio, etc., managers like Burt Shotton, Leo Durocher and Bucky Harris, and executives like Branch Rickey and Larry McPhail. We also get a strong sense of baseball in that year before television, urban decline, franchise shifts, and expansion changed the game. This book is far from flawless. Barber was no historian, he rambles at times, there is some imperfect grammar, and little mention of most other teams. Still, this popular ex-announcer has an easy style that makes for an interesting read.

The late Red Barber captures both the glory and intrigue of the 1947 baseball season. He recounts in a breezy upbeat style the secret battle between Branch Rickey of the Dodgers and his protege Lee McPhail of the Yankees. He brings the notable characters of the season - Jackie Robinson, Barney Shotton, Joe DiMaggio etc. to life and ends the book with a wonderful retelling of the 1947 Dodger-Yankee World Series.This book is much better than the average baseball book and well worth the money.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I think any baseball fan will. Having said that, the book has one slight problem that keeps it from being great. Red rambles occasionly, going off on tangents and later repeating himself, discussing the same event he wrote about several pages earlier. On the much larger up side; the book does more than just chronicle the 1947 baseball season. It is also an interesting biography of Branch Rickey, Larry MacPhail, and Jackie Robinson. Weaving their stories plus historical background of the Dodgers, Yankees, Cardinals and the authors own experiences as an early brodcaster far outweigh any problems in writing style. He also redeems himself in his decsription of the 1947 World Series; as dramatic a reading of baseball events as you could want. Overall---Very Good-just short of Great.