Baseball in '41: A Celebration of the "Best Baseball Season Ever"

Robert Creamer was a young college student in 1941, which he terms "the best baseball season ever." Most baseball fans know that 1941 was the year Ted Williams hit .406 and Joe DiMaggio registered his 56-game hit streak. Those events, however, overshadowed an exciting National League race involving the Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals. Creamer writes that in the summer of 1941 he "rooted for the Dodgers, DiMaggio and the Russians." In addition to baseball, Creamer details the events leading up to World War II. "Baseball and Other Matters in 1941" is heavier on the National League pennant race and lighter on the feats of Williams and DiMaggio than most readers would expect. Creamer chronicles the rise of the Dodgers and their season-long battle with the St. Louis Cardinals. Cardinals' manager Billy Southworth called the 1941 National League pennant race "the greatest pennant race ever." The Dodgers' acquisition of second baseman Billy Herman was the key to winning the pennant, according to Creamer. Readers will perhaps gain a greater appreciation for players such as Hank Greenberg, Bob Feller and Pete Reiser after reading Creamer's book. Williams called Feller "the greatest pitcher I ever saw." In 1941, DiMaggio said, "Feller is the best living pitcher. I don't think anyone is going to throw the ball faster and his curve ball isn't human." In his autobiography, Leo Durocher said of Reiser, the Dodgers' centerfielder whose career was shortened by injuries, "He was every bit as good as Mays. He might have been better...Mays had everything. Pete Reiser had everything but luck." Greenberg put up impressive numbers before losing four and a half years to military service. From 1937-1940, he averaged 43 homers and 143 RBIs. The strength of this book is that Creamer was a young and impressionable baseball fan in 1941. He remembers the events he writes about and the book goes beyond just the factual accounts.

This is an entertaining memoir of the 1941 baseball season. Sportswriter Robert Creamer wrote this book a half century later, recalling his days a 19-year old Yankee fan in the summer before Pearl Harbor. Baseball was the national rage in 1941, but worries about dangerous events overseas were never far away. Soon, America would be at war, and many players would be in uniform, as would Creamer and most of his peers. This book covers the year's hitting feats by superstars Ted Williams (batted .406) and Joe DiMaggio (56 game hitting streak), the arrival of Stan Musial, the tragic death of Lou Gherig, and the drafting of Hank Greenberg into the army. There's also a look at prejudice in baseball, politics, and the improbable pennant won by the Brooklyn Dodgers - who then lost to the Yankees in a World Series that featured Mickey Owen's dropped third strike. Readers get a very nice feel for baseball and life in America in that pre-television era. I wish Creamer would have devoted more attention to baseball's oft-overlooked, non-glamour teams (Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox, etc) for a more complete view. Still, this is an interesting look at baseball from a bygone era.

For once, the integration of autobiography, history and baseball really works. I can't explain why - this sort of thing often stinks - but this is a truly wonderful book.

Baseball has perhaps never had a season of the importance of 1941. In the last year of the American "innocence" before the beginning of World War II, unassailable records were broken and Americans got to see some of the greatest baseball ever played. It was the season of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, Ted Williams astounding .406 batting average, and the improbable run of the Brooklyn Dodgers to the National League pennant.The end would be one of the best world series ever, a series that would see the first of the New York Yankees numerous world series victories over the Dodgers. Finally, the clouds broke and America was at war.Author Robert Creamer has done an outstanding job weaving in tales from his own life and coupling them with observations about the season as it unfolded. Creamer is a very readable author who gives the reader an outstanding insight into what life was like in America in 1941.

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE JOE DIMAGGIO? THIS IS THE SEASON OF JOE'S STREAK, TED WILLIAMS BATTING .400, THE DODGERS WINNING THE PENNANT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 21 YEARS,AND THE UNITED STATES ON THE BRINK OF ENTERING THE WAR. I FELT AS THOUGH I WAS TRANSPORTED BACK TO OUR LAST YEAR OF INNOCENCE AND EBBETS FIELD ALL IN THE SPACE OF ONE EVENING. THIS BOOK IS MORE THAN JUST BASEBALL IT IS HISTORY AS SEEN BY A YOUNG MAN WHO HAS PASSIONS AND LOVES THAT HE RETAINS EVEN 50 YEARS LATER. HE ALSO GIVES THE APPROPRIATE CREDIT TO KENNY KELTNER AND THE REST OF THE CLEVELAND INDIANS FOR PUTTING A STOP TO THE MOST FAMOUS STREAK IN ALL OF SPORT.