October 1964

Rating:
Summary: Keep Baseball Alive, Even if Players Kill It
Review: What to do with the rest of the summer of the Boys of Summer take their ball and go home? Read this book...

I'm not, by any means, a rabid baseball fan, but Halberstam paints fascinating word portraits of many of the sport's most famous players. Not only are the biographies interesting, the story their collective desires to WIN (not make money) is inspirational. In 1964, baseball led the way in accepting minorities into the fabric of American culture. Despite off-the-field distractions, the Saint Louis Cardinals fought and clawed their way into the World Series.

Bob Gibson kept the team focused. He was just plain mean on the mound. Opposing batters feared him. And in the end, Gibson's reputation and his ability to "psyche out" his opponents may have given the Cards that little extra edge that made them Baseball's World Champions in October 1964.

Rating:
Summary: Another Halberstam home run...
Review: Yes, this is another lovely baseball book from David Halberstam. While not as sweeping and poetic as 'Summer of 49', it is more...oh I don't know..."hard-boiled"?
Maybe baseball was different too...and he's reflecting that in his book. Baseball was more serious.
Take players like Maris and Mantle, or Gibson and Brock. These aging superstars and noble black ballplayers...their stories aren't so much whimsical (like in 1949) as seriocomic. The hardships Gibson and Brock went through can only be imagined by today's players. Mantle's brittle knees almost have their own personality here.
Yet the power of a Gibson pitch or a Mantle home run comes across perfectly in Halberstam's prose.
Also, he proves the theory that there is no other sport contest more inherently dramatic (in a literary sense) than a classic pennant race.
This is a pleasure to read.