THE SUBWAY SERIES

Glory days in Gotham.

Sportswriter Laughland’s account of the contests between the Yankees, Giants, Dodgers, and Mets—before the Giants and Dodgers moved to greener pastures—starts ambitiously with an epigraph from The Great Gatsby about the “wild promise” of the city as seen from the Queensboro Bridge. The author resurrects long-forgotten history. The Brooklyn team, for instance, was initially dubbed the Trolley Dodgers because pedestrians “were forced to bob and weave to avoid the borough’s countless trolley cars.” And former Giants owner Charles A. Stoneham had business dealings with Arnold Rothstein, the infamous “fixer” of the 1919 World Series. The nascent origin stories of the national pastime are nicely sketched out, with nods to the socioeconomic factors that led to its success—the completion of subways that made it easier for fans to get to Yankee Stadium, Ebbets Field, and the Polo Grounds. The rivalries between the Giants and Yankees are a pleasure to read about, with the Giants—led by Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson—facing off against the Yankees’ Murderers’ Row of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and, later, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. Well portrayed, too, are the Giants’ nurturing of epochally great centerfielder (and noted Harlem stickball player) Willie Mays, under the ministrations of the volatile Leo Durocher. The tale starts to sag when midseason bouts between the Mets and Yankees (and occasional fall classic contests) are elevated to the stature of the “Subway Series” of old. Also weakening the text are an abundance of cliches (such as athletes “taking the sport by storm”) and coy references to the Mets as “the Amazin’s.”

A promising account of a bygone era loses steam when moving into modern times.