“The Summer of ‘49” by David Halberstam Pulitzer Prize winner for non-fiction. I usually read this book at the start of probably every fifth BB season just to remember what baseball was, and meant to me, in my earliest years. Being New England born you had to pick one or the other of the teams..not both like me.
Red Sox vs Yankees 1949; Joe DiMaggio vs Ted Williams. One at the sunset of his career and the other reestablishing himself as the greatest hitter of all time (according to who you’re listening to) before, again, serving in Korea as a fighter pilot.
One might think Mr. Halberstam focused primarily on Joe vs Ted but he did not. The players, coaches, managers, front office, owners are described, quoted, and written of, worts and all. If you were born in the 40s, and collected BB cards and listened, and later watched, the games one’s mind can concur of memories of those years, and those players, at a time when your biggest problem was continuing to play and be late for supper or leaving when you were next up and two guys were in scoring position.
Greatest sports related book ever!
The current Red Sox appear to be a dumpster fire. Their local fans also.
The Yankees have righted the ship. Two weeks ago 81% of their fans wanted to fire the Manager. Normal.
I was hoping Seattle made the WS last year because I could dust off my copy of “Ball Four” by Jim Bouton and relive his days with the Seattle Pilots and his “friend”, the manager Joe Schultz in 1970(?).
And, by definition, Ellis Kinder was the best hung-over pitcher in the history of baseball.
