Summer of '49 (P.S.)
With incredible skill, passion, and insight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam returns us to a glorious time when the dreams of a now almost forgotten America rested on the crack of a bat.
The year was 1949, and a war-weary nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League, and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions—one that would be decided in an explosive head-to-head confrontation on the last day of the season.
With the airwaves saturated with so much sporting choice, it's hard to imagine how, not that long ago, baseball so completely dominated the landscape and captured imaginations. Given the 1949 season that veteran journalist David Halberstam meticulously recreates, maybe it's not so hard after all. It was a season of great public and personal drama for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, with the conflict finally resolving itself in a Yankee pennant following a head-to-head showdown on the final day of the season. Each team was led by a star of the highest magnitude: Joe DiMaggio spurred the Yankees despite missing half the season with a foot injury; Ted Williams virtually carried the Sox on his back, missing an unprecedented third Triple Crown by mere decimal points on his batting average. Halberstam focuses much of his narrative on the trials of these two individual sporting giants, adding fine supporting performances by Yogi Berra, Ellis Kinder, Dom DiMaggio, even restaurateur Toots Shoor. Both on and off the field, Halberstam beautifully captures the ethos of a more innocent game that no longer exists, played by heroes far more driven by their pride than by their salaries.
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- ISBN: 9780060884260
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49 Reviews
| From: Amazon Posted: Mar 19, 2008 Type: User Review |
No Real Magic
Halberstam was a brilliant man whose writing only occasionally reflected that brilliance. His sports books are weak; this is probably the strongest one, but that is not saying much.
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 2.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jan 21, 2008 Type: User Review |
The Good Old Days
When I read this book I felt like I was a kid again. I grew up in the sixties and was not a fan of either the Yankees or the Red Sox. But, I loved baseball, enjoyed reading about the players from the past and loved it when my dad and others told...
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 5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jan 15, 2008 Type: User Review |
The Title Game
The late David Halberstam wrote erudite books on a wide variety of subjects. Thankfully, one of his interests was baseball. He has produced several scholarly recreations of some of the most fascinating pennant races in baseball history. In "The...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Aug 23, 2007 Type: User Review |
Error Notification
I did notice two errors in the photo section. Main one was a picture of Tommy Henrich scoring after a home run off Don Newcombe. The caption below brings attention to Newcombe walking off the field after the hit. The error is the player walking...
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 4.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Aug 17, 2007 Type: User Review |
Rattle Your Saber(metrics)?
Don't get a statistic wrong; don't you dare make a mistake. Okay, Bill James correctly points out some mistakes that Mr. Halberstam makes in this book. None of the mistakes are important to the story, nor do any of them detract from the book in...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Aug 05, 2007 Type: User Review |
"Goddam, But Playing Baseball Is Fun"
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: May 27, 2007 Type: User Review |
Could Not Put It Down
I always wondered how you could make writing about baseball a page turner when watching the game can be extremely dull. David Halberstam does it brilliantly in this book about a pennant rice between two arch enemies that occured nearly sixty...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Apr 24, 2007 Type: User Review |
Wonderful book about baseball
Hearing of the author's untimely death today got me thinking about this book, which I read years and years ago but still remember fondly as one of the best baseball books I've ever come across.
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Apr 24, 2007 Type: User Review |
A Great Sports Narrative
On hearing of David Halberstam's death today, my thoughts immediately turned to this great book. I read it 18 years ago, but the story is still fresh in my memory - Ted Williams quizzing Dom DiMaggio on how the opposing pitcher was throwing that...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Apr 19, 2007 Type: User Review |
Yankees-Red Sox never sounded so gorgeous
Halberstam can perhaps be forgiven for focusing solely on the Yankees and Red Sox for the course of the book. The book is gripping, striking a fantastic balance between the games and the men who played them. If you're a fan of the baseball...
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5.00/5 |
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