Summer of '49

"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.

Halbertam is a great one for capturing incredible detail in bringing the era alive. To read one of his books feels like you are living a road trip with the teams involved for the whole season. Amazing research and written in a style that even those unfamiliar with a lot of the ballplayer names, can still enjoy it. I especially loved the insights into DiMaggio, Toots Shor and Ted Williams. It is amazing how many innings would pitch in those days, even with injuries, and still pitch effectively.

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.

As an American history buff who has long admired the books of David Halberstam ("The Fifties", "The Best and the Brightest"), I would argue that the "Summer of 49" is one of Halberstam's best works to date. I was visiting a friend's house when I noticed a copy of the "Summer of 49" on his bookshelf. My friend, a passionate baseball fan, told me what the book was about. Although I'm not a huge baseball fan (growing up in North Carolina and following the Duke-Carolina rivalry gave me more of an interest in college basketball), I was enough of a fan of Halberstam that I borrowed the book. And, was I pleasantly surprised! Even if you're NOT a big baseball fan you'll still love this book if you're at all interested in American history. Instead of focusing on ERAs, bases stolen, and the other statistics that would appeal only to baseball buffs, Halberstam focuses on the human side of a great sports rivalry - the New York Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox. And in the "Summer of 49" he gives the story of one of that rivalry's greatest moments - the breathtaking, down-to-the-wire showdown between Joe DiMaggio's Yankees and Ted Williams's Red Sox. As always, Halberstam evokes a sense of nostalgia for the past that's almost overwhelming - reading about DiMaggio's health problems, or Williams's running battles with the vicious, always-critical Boston newspapers, or pitcher Ellis Kinder's bitterness at Red Sox manager Joe McCarthy - you get the feeling that you're right there with them. When I finished I felt awed by DiMaggio's quiet pride in winning the American League pennant and World Series after all of his health problems in 1949, and a genuine sadness at the emotional devastation the Red Sox felt after coming so close to winning the pennant two years in a row, only to lose in such cliffhanging, heartbreaking finales. If you enjoy Halberstam's style of writing, and you enjoy reading about a golden age of American sports (even if you're not a baseball fan) then you'll LOVE this book. A great read!

"Take me out to the ballgame..." One might find themselves singing the endearing, catchy tune after reading, Summer of '49 written by Pulitzer-prize winner, David Halberstam. The reader is drawn into the baseball universe in a time when it truly was "America's favorite pastime." The era Halberstam captivates is a time when young children played outside the stadium in hopes to catch a glimpse of their favorite players. It was a time when even Red Sox fans cheered for DiMaggio when he was back in the game after recovering from an injury. The era was surrounded with the glamour of baseball in the purest sense. There was something captivating about being at the game, cheering for the team while eating peanuts and hot dogs. From the New York Yankees greatest player, Joe DiMaggio to Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox and the less famous names in between, Halberstam pulls us into the good times and hardships that came with being on two of the most successful teams of the sport. As readers, we are attracted to everything about this great sport because Halberstam makes us care about the individuals and the teams contributing to its success. The great players portrayed in this book not only shape baseball, but are a major aspect in shaping part of US history in the 20th Century as well. Halberstam brings the players to us and makes us appreciate their hard work and love of the game. This book is about excellence, the joy of being a part of a team. We see the importance of not just being good, but being better. Better than you thought you were or what others think you can do. It is about human nature and the nature of baseball.