An agreeably digressive and anecdotal trip, with a perceptive guide, down a remarkable span in baseball's memory lane. Drawing on experiences gained as a young sportswriter during the post-WW II period he resurrects here, Kahn (Games We Used to Play, The Boys of Summer, etc.) hits the high and low points of nearly a dozen seasons. The author's golden age began with Jackie Robinson's arrival as the first black to play in the major leagues and ended with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants heading west to California, momentarily making the Yankees the only game in town. In between, the Big Apple's three clubs dominated the national pastime, winning nine out of eleven World Series (as often as not, from one another). During these years, moreover, triborough baseball had an almost perfectly marvelous cast of characters- -including Yogi Berra, Leo Durocher, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Walter O'Malley, Pee Wee Reese, Branch Rickey, Red Smith, Duke Snider, and Casey Stengel. In telling detail, Kahn recalls the notable achievements of lesser lights who frequently outdid their superstar teammates in championship contests. Cases in point range from Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning homer through Don Larsen's perfect game and the ninth-inning double by Cooky Lavagetto that broke up a no-hit bid by another Bronx Bomber (Bill Bevens). The author also sets the record straight on what the storied Joe DiMaggio was like off the field; the identity of the player who was Brooklyn's first choice to break baseball's color barrier; Larry MacPhail's alcohol-accelerated retirement; and the impact of the emerging medium of TV on ballpark attendance. While Kahn covers a lot of well-trampled ground here, he does so with an elegant authority that—without false sentiment or excessive nostalgia—puts certain of the diamond game's good old days in clear and compelling perspective. (Photographs—not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 5, 1993
ISBN: 0-395-56155-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
Otherwise, this biography-cum-history offers many small pleasures (among them, the fact that Jackson's autograph sold in...
Another peek at baseball's good old days—or, in this case, bad old days—by veteran sports-historian Frommer (Growing Up at Bat, 1989, etc.).
Frommer's protagonist in this tale of tragedy and deceit is Shoeless Joe Jackson, whose reputation is undergoing a mini-renaissance thanks to Field of Dreams (1989), although probably not enough of one to propel him into the Hall of Fame (Jackson is widely considered to be the greatest player excluded from the Hall). Frommer paints Shoeless Joe as a baseball natural ("Joe Jackson hit the ball harder than any man ever to play baseball''— Ty Cobb), an illiterate hick (his table utensils consisted of knife and fingers), and an innocent man snared by the greatest scandal in baseball history. The facts as laid out by Frommer (and many before him) convince: While seven teammates on the 1919 Chicago White Sox threw the World Series, Jackson played errorless ball and hit a spectacular .375. Nonetheless, Commission of Baseball Judge Landis, whom Frommer dislikes ("always one to have his own way, always one to go out of his way to make an extra dollar''), banned Jackson from the game for life. The man who batted .408 in his rookie year ended up playing pseudonymously in pick-up leagues throughout the South. A riveting appendix presents in toto Jackson's testimony before a grand jury investigating the "Black Sox'' scandal.
Otherwise, this biography-cum-history offers many small pleasures (among them, the fact that Jackson's autograph sold in 1990 for $23,100, the highest price of any 19th- or 20th-century signature) but no dazzle; for the Joe Jackson of myth, W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe (1982) can't be beat.Pub Date: July 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-87833-784-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Taylor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An ambitious and jolting, if occasionally turgid, investigation into the origins and wider implications of the contemporary union of science and sport. Blending cultural history with ethical alarm, Hoberman (Scandinavian and Germanic Languages/Univ. of Texas at Austin) identifies the emergence of sports science in 19th-century assessments of human capabilities and traces it through the developing disciplines of physiology and physical anthropology. Viewed as physically ``pathological'' subjects, athletes were initially free from outside intervention. Later—Hoberman's history gets a bit sketchy here—nationalist anxieties, pharmacological advances, and the interests of the athletes themselves created an ``obsessional'' climate in which human values were sacrificed for improved performance. Today, despite testing for 3,700 banned substances, ``it is clear that international controls cannot put an end to doping'': Some in the sports community have advocated legalizing all enhancements. A more alarming possibility, one ``touching on human identity itself,'' is future use of genetic engineering to improve athletic specimens. Although impressive in its range, the book's power is undercut by a dense, pedantic style marked by frequent repetition. Even so, there are well-placed attacks on, among other targets, the hypocrisy of the sporting world and the dubious claims of sports psychology. While possibly overstated, this is still a frightening exposÇ of scientific abuse indirectly sanctioned by an alternately indifferent and medal- hungry political and social environment. Not quite a world-beater—and a bit of a downer for an Olympic year—but worth the attention of anyone serious about the future of humanity in the sporting arena and beyond.
Pub Date: July 6, 1992
ISBN: 0-02-914765-4
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
