Rating: 
Summary: One of the best baseball books ever written
Review: David Halberstam is one of my all-time favorite writers, and this is one of his best books. The book deals with the 1964 World Series and offers a whole new insight to the classic series between the Cardinals and Yankees. It's worth reading just for the stories about Bob Gibson, but there's so much more to the story. One of the biggest things the Cards had going for them was how well the team handled integration. This was only 17 years after Jackie Robinson broke in with the Dodgers and there were a few teams that had only integrated in the past few years. Halberstam says the National League integrated much more quickly and that was a big reason for the difference in the style of play between the two leagues. He also shows how well the Cardinals dealt with the issue and how poorly the Yankees accomplished integrating their team. As a result, the Cards had a much closer team than the Yankees. If you enjoy this book, you should check out Halberstam's other book about baseball (The Summer of '49). If you like these and are a basketball fan I would also recommend The Breaks of the Game (a look at one season for the Portland Trailblazers). If you enjoy any of these books and are interested in the media, be sure to check out The Powers That Be. If you like history, The Best and the Brightest is probably the best book ever written about Vietnam and the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and The Children is an outstanding book about the fight to integrate the south during the 1960's.
Rating: 
Summary: the times they were a-changin, and the Yankees weren't
Review: David Halberstam is undoubtedly one of the great journalists of the past few decades. As the New York Times correspondent in Vietnam in the early 60's, he was one of the most influential media voices on the War and The Best and the Brightest was one of the first really important books on what had gone wrong. The success of the book freed him from the grind of daily newspaper work, but in the succeeding years he has produced books on The Times, the auto industry and various sports, almost all of which are characterized by reportage of the highest quality. I particularly liked The Reckoning, wherein he recounts the fall of the American and the rise of the Japanese auto industries and Breaks of the Game, in which he details one year in the life of the Portland Trail Blazers and which I maintain is the only good basketball book ever written. And, of course, he wrote the terrific Summer of '49, about the rivalry between the Red Sox of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio's Yankees. In October 1964 he returns to baseball, this time to the World Series showdown between the Yankees and the Cardinals, and combines the detailed reporting for which he is known, with a theme similar to that of The Reckoning. For what truly interests him about that year, a seemingly ordinary enough season in most respects, is the aspect of race and how the different teams dealt with it. He explores the manner in which the Cardinals, through their commitment to finding and developing black players, were leading a revolution in the game of baseball, building their team around superior speed and athleticism and the burning desire to succeed. He contrasts them with the Yankees, an increasingly fossilized institution, refusing to use black players, attempting to quash free spirits and unable to replace declining stars like Mantle and Ford. Now if, like me, you grew up listening to Bill White and Phil Rizzuto and Tim McCarver broadcast baseball games, many of the stories in here will be familiar. In fact, I became conscious for perhaps the first time of the difference between a great reporter and great writer as I was reading this book. I really noticed that large swaths of the book are simple regurgitation of interviews and the judgments about the game that are being related are not even his own, they are the interviewees. If Mel Stottlemyre told him that the key to pitching was throwing breaking balls and keeping the ball down, then that's Halberstam's belief. I don't know whether he actually doesn't know all that much about the game or simply chose to believe the professionals, but I found a lot of the opinion that he offers to be unconsidered. His editorial voice wafts very faintly through the book, emerging only on the racial and labor issues (Curt Flood of the Cardinals would be the first man to challenge baseball's restrictive contracts, paving the way for free agency). Much of the rest reads like a reporter conveying the players' impressions after a game. There are also some really annoying repetitions in the book, redundancies which any editor should have caught, assuming editors still exist. But on balance I liked the book. His essential "changing of the guard" premise is absolutely correct. Black players completely dominated the 60's and 70's, not merely for athletic reasons but also because they were simply hungrier and had more to gain (for much the same reason, Irish then Jews and Italians enjoyed their hey day earlier in the century and Latin American players are in the ascendancy now). The more aggressive signing of black talent also led to a long period of dominance by the National League after years of Yankee invincibility. This racial theme gives the book a greater social resonance than most sports fare which, combined with the baseball lore, would seem to make the book an ideal vehicle to teach young adults about the civil rights struggles in a format they'd find interesting and entertaining. GRADE: B
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: Slides by at a Languorous Baseball Pace
Review: Halberstam's book is a fun read, part history lesson, part box score, and part baseball hero worship. The accounts of race relations in the sport, the maintenance and collapse of the Yankees dynasty, scouting, and the minor leagues are windows into baseball's past and its legacy to America. The stories of Mickey Mantle's decline, Bob Gibson's intensity, and Lou Brock's focus are compelling and personal. The pennant race and world series are told in clinical detail, but are surprisingly devoid of passion given the long sweet windup of the early chapters. The book is a must for baseball fans, but optional for all others. It runs along slow and easy, like a Sunday double-header, with elongated prose and steady pace. It could be a hundred pages shorter and appeal to a broader audience, but perhaps the book is like baseball itself, that the man once said is only as boring as the person watching it.
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: Halberstam is great baseball story-teller
Review: I enjoyed this book. Halberstam is a master at weaving a story--you won't get bogged down by game description, you also get colorful stories about the players involved. At times, though, Halberstam's race preaching can be condescending to the players (black and white) he refers to.
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