Rating: 
Summary: A Must-Have for Baseball Fans
Review: David Halberstam once again captures the professional baseball world, in many cases the world that has been forgotten or isn't glamorous to write about. The book is a wonderful snapshot of changing times, which affected the seemingly insular world of baseball as it did the rest of the nation. It is also the story of the end of a dynasty, and shows some of the causes of the Yankees imminent fall from being kings of the major league hill. While some have commented that the book is for the baseball fan only, and this has some merit, I would argue that the book could just as easily spur the nascent fan's interest in the game far more than simply reading another book about how the game has degenerated. Indeed, reading this work shows us that ballplayers always had motives that were part love of the game and part (if not in some cases primarily) economic. One follows the book as one follows a season, allowing even those who don't follow the game the chance to experience the daily ebbs and flows of the baseball fan throughout the course of one season.
Rating: 
Summary: Baseball's relevance to civil rights struggle
Review: David Halberstam uses the story of the 1964 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees to explain the dynamics of the African-American struggle for civil rights in the U.S. And he does it in a way that isn't pedantic or preachy.Halberstam's thesis in "October 1964" is that the Cardinals embody the virtue of integration, while the Yankees saw their dynasty collapse because they refused to embrace it. By 1964, the National League was far more integrated than the rival American League, boasting not only the talented stars of the Cardinals (including such black players as pitcher Bob Gibson, centerfielder Curt Flood, leftfielder Lou Brock, and first baseman Bill White), but many others on its various teams. Just a partial list: Willie Mays and Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants; Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates; Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson of the Cincinnati Reds, and Hank Aaron and Lee Maye of the Milwaukee Braves. "October 1964" examines how the St. Louis players learned to transcend their ethnic backgrounds; the racial education of Tennessee-born Tim McCarver by Gibson, Flood and the others is one of the key elements of this part of the story. All the intensity of a four-way fight for the NL crown is conveyed very well in the book, further proving that this is no mere polemic. The Yankee portion of the story might be read as an extension of Jim Bouton's comments on this team in "Ball Four." As chronicled here, the Yankees emerge as a team on borrowed time, held together by veterans with the savvy and toughness of a perennial winner, but hampered by physical deterioration. The team's rationalization for all but ignoring black talent is also thoroughly explained. The narrative of the seven-game World Series itself is exciting, even to those familiar with each game. Lastly, "October 1964" is a poignant look at a time when baseball had a simpler structure: 10-team leagues with no divisions and a reserve clause that greatly restricted player salaries and movement. There are things many fans would like to have back about that era, and some things we may be better off without.
Rating:
Summary: Yo! Gi!
Review: Despite the 15-year gap between the two stories, it seems like OCTOBER 1964 picks up right where SUMMER OF '49 leaves off. Despite the suggestion of the title, OCTOBER, like it's predecessor, examines a lot of What Went Before -- the grind of the season, spring training, and the trends in baseball leading up to the might clash. Here, those trends are the result of what began with the first book. Years of New York Yankee domination are beginning to wind down, and more importantly, the racial integration of the baseball leagues was beginning to provide advantages to those teams willing to adapt. The players that Halberstam describes are the ones that created the baseball of today. These players brought free agency and a strong Players Association that experienced uninterrupted negotiating success until this last summer. Essentially, what we have here has to be one of the most fascinating collection of baseball players ever. For the Yankees, you have Mantle and Maris, uncomfortable and declining slugging kings, along with wacky Jim Bouton (see BALL FOUR). The Cardinals have Curt Flood, Bob Uecker, and Bob Gibson, whose made his reputation against all of baseball in this one World Series. This book suffers some of the same flaws as SUMMER OF '49. Just like its predecessor, it relies heavily on the potentially-flawed and biased memories of the participants, though, to my knowledge, this volume did not draw nearly so many attacks against its veracity. It doesn't have the rosters at the beginning of the book (tsk). But what it doesn't have, fortunately, is the sense that something is missing. Here, it truly feels like baseball's best are playing the game, and nobody but the untalented are excluded. Well, except for Uecker.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful account of the beginning of the end for the Yanks
Review: Excellent book! The character buildup and locker-room details make this one of the best baseball books written. Though not as "romantic" as Roger Angell's "The Summer Game", it goes in depth with all the personalities (however minor) that had a part in the incredible late-season surge of the Cardinals (and late season faltering of the Phillies) as well as the last great Yankee team. As if that's not enough, the Epilouge follows-up with what happened to all the key personnel to make this book a must have for the baseball buff or a great read for the casual fan...highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Better Writer than Reporter
Review: Halberstam as always writes beautifully here, but as in some of his other sports books the minor factual errors he makes leave one wondering what else hasn't adequately been checked. For example, the anecdote supposedly occuring in Ralph Terry's rookie season wherein he is alleged to have crossed words with Cy Young. It's a great story, of course. The small problem is that Ralph Terry first appeared in a major league game in August, 1956, while Young died in November, 1955. Could Terry have encountered Young earlier in life, before Terry's rookie season? Of course, but the fact is that it didn't happen as related...
Rating:
Summary: Out with the old...
Review: I am convinced that if David Halberstam had dedicated his career to the subject, he would be known as the best baseball writer of all time. As it is he has written two of the best single-season accounts around, "Summer of '49" and "October 1964". Halberstam writes up the Cardinals-Yankees clash as a symbol of the changing times in early 1960s baseball. The new game, represented by the Cardinals, is marked by speed on the field and by a more educated, independent class of player off the field. The new game, of course, is driven by the influx of the great black players into the National League. Pridefully and foolishly, the Yankees have refused to adapt to integration, believing that their greatness in the past will carry their dominance into the future. The excellence of the book comes through in Halberstam's ability to develop the personalities of the principals while setting up the final showdown of old vs. new, Yankees vs. Cardinals. The biographical sketches alone make the book well worth reading. I especially enjoyed the portrait of the complicated star Bob Gibson. Several interesting sublots also evolve, including the hiring and firing of Yogi Berra, and the jaw-dropping baseball-stupidity of owner Gussie Busch, who drove out the general manager and field manager of a championship team. This is my favorite kind of baseball writing, it looks beyond the statistics and contemporary newspaper articles to show the characters of some of the men who changed baseball. I hope Halberstam has a few more baseball books in him.
Rating:
Summary: Social History Written for a Broad Audience
Review: I recently reread David Halberstam's "October 1964," about the World Series between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals. As other reviewers of this book on Amazon.com have noted, it is social history of a high order. Halberstam uses the World Series of 1964 as a foil to discuss race relations in the decade, both inside baseball and out, for the Yankees represented an approach to society reflective of a status quo that had much more to do with police brutality against civil rights workers in Selma than the Yankees would care to admit. Meantime, the Cardinals expressed much more of the changing climate in America.
As Halberstam points out, it looked as if all the ingredients of a great team were coming together for the Cardinals in the early 1960s. The team had all of the attributes of its successful teams of the past, excellent pitching, great defense, and speed. But there was something more that was critical to the Cardinals success in 1964, as Halberstam emphasizes, how the team bridged the racial divide in the United States to create a cohesive unit. Everyone who visited the Cardinals locker room recognized that something was different from other teams. The African American, White, and Latino players seemed to have an easier relationship than elsewhere. No question, many of the premier players for the Cardinals were African Americans in 1964--Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Curt Flood, and Bill White--and they certainly helped set the tenor of the clubhouse. But southerners like Ken Boyer and Tim McCarver were also committed to the successful integration of American life and brought that perspective to the team as well. This relative racial harmony was significant for the Cardinals and stood in striking contrast to the problems present with the Yankees and other major league teams.
One anecdote about the Cardinals offered in "October 1964" elucidates this issue. Curt Flood recounted a story in "October 1964" of going to Cardinals spring training camp in Florida in the latter 1950s and finding himself sent to an African American boarding house in another town, instead of staying in the same hotel where his white teammates were housed. A sensitive and thoughtful man, Flood was both hurt and angered by this situation and when the opportunity presented he said something. When the Cardinals owner, August A. Busch Jr., saw him at the training camp and struck up a conversation Flood let slip that the situation of the black players was not the best. Busch was genuinely surprised that Flood and the other black players were not staying at the main hotel with the "rest of the guys" and promised to do something about it. He went out and purchased a hotel in St. Petersburg where all the Cardinals could stay together with their families during spring training.
In later years, players from other teams recalled visiting that hotel to see members of the Cards and finding cookouts taking place with entire families, black and white, together. The fact that they lived together for several weeks during spring training may have broken down the barriers of prejudice more than any other action the Cardinals could have taken. The team was, without question, more successful in integrating its players than many other major league clubs. This contributed to the success of the team on the field and the attraction of the team off it.
Halberstam emphasizes that the match between the Cardinals and Yankees in 1964 had symbolic value far beyond the match-up on the field. The Cardinals were a well-integrated team with excellent African American players. The Yankees had failed to integrate until the mid-1950s and then only modestly so. Indeed, their first African American player was St. Louis native Elston Howard and he only came up to the Yankees in 1955. A superb player, the Yankees ballyhooed Howard's breaking of the color line on the team by saying that he was a true "gentleman," and thereby appropriate to wear Yankee pinstripes. One wit observed that this was so much nonsense, after all since when did baseball players have to be "gentlemen?" The Yanks in 1964 were also a franchise on the verge of collapse, with aging superstars and not much down on the farm to call up to the majors. Their best player, Mickey Mantle, was nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career, and his replacement in the outfield would be Bobby Mercer, a decent journeyman player but not someone who would carry on the tradition of Ruth-DiMaggio-Mantle.
The Cardinals victory in the World Series in 1964 symbolized for Halberstam the death of the old manner of baseball, and thereafter every championship team would have African American stars as a critical element to success. It is an excellent discussion of the subject, well-written and thought-provoking.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Baseball Book I Have Ever Read!
Review: I thought I was a knowledgeable baseball fan until I read this book. The depth and insight that the author provides is beyond comprehension. We find out why the National League was the superior league for many years. We also learn that the Yankees could have been far greater than they actually were (they could have signed Willie Mays and Hank Aaron to name a few greats) if not for their own predjudice. We get a great insight to the personalities of baseball legends (Bob Gibson and Lou Brock were fascinating). On top of everything one of the most exciting World Series unfolds. The author's depictions are so vivid, I felt I was the catcher for Whitey Ford or Bob Gibson instead of just a reader of a book. On top of that, even knowing the outcome I felt the tension of a real game as the story was being told. If you only read one baseball book, this one should be it!
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: If you are a baseball junkie, this is a captivating, must have book to add to your collection.
Rating:
Summary: A Fall Classic
Review: In 1964 the Yankees and the Cardinals matched up in the World Series as two contrasting teams. The Yankees were a decaying dynasty; this was the end of their incredible sixteen year run from 1949-1964, and the stars they had always counted on, like Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle, were battling injuries on the downside of their careers. The Cardinals, meanwhile, countered the Yankees aging arrogance with a youthful hunger that couldn't be denied. A racially diverse group of young players like Bob Gibson, Tim McCarver, Ken Boyer, Curt Flood, Lou Brock, and Bill White were too much for New York, and baseball entered a new era. Halberstam focuses mainly on the personal stories of the men involved, as well as the social climate of the times and how the two teams responded to it. The Yankees were reluctant to integrate, their management confident that they could continue to win with white players. The Cardinals were probably the most integrated team in baseball, but there was almost no internal conflict. Their clubhouse leader, in fact, was a black man, Bob Gibson. This book is a classic.
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