Summer of '49

ByDavid Halberstam

Release Date: 2012-12-18
Genre: Baseball

Score: 4.5

4.5

From 62 Ratings

Description

This #1 bestselling baseball classic of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is "dazzling . . . heart-stopping . . . A celebration of a vanished heroic age" (The New York Times Book Review).
The summer of 1949: It was baseball's Golden Age and the year Joe DiMaggio's New York Yankees were locked in a soon-to-be classic battle with Ted Williams's Boston Red Sox for the American League pennant. As postwar America looked for a unifying moment, the greatest players in baseball history brought their rivalry to the field, captivating the American public through the heart-pounding final moments of the season. This expansive story captures an era, incorporating profiles of the players and their families, fans, broadcasters, baseball executives, and sportswriters. Riveting in its blend of powerful detail and exhilarating narrative, The Summer of '49 is Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam's engrossing look at not only a sports rivalry, but a time when America's very identity was wrapped up in its beloved national game.

This ebook features an extended biography of David Halberstam.

Reviews

Excellent book
5
By 4239
on the Boys of Summer and their life beyond the ballpark.
Halberstam was great and this is one of his best books.
Great story, perfect writing
5
By cbearg
On one level, this book is about a pennant race in 1949, when baseball was the national pasttime and fans used their imaginations to “see” games from the newspaper accounts or radio broadcasts.

On another level, it’s the story of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio during that season — Williams in full bloom, and DiMaggio near the end of his career.

Halberstam tells the story with his wonderful style, a combination of reportorial economy and a fan’s compassion. I read somewhere that Halberstam said he wrote some popular books that paid the bills, and some books that allowed him to explore topics he loved. For me, this book is the best of both.