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Summary
Summary
The extraordinary story of the 1968 baseball season--when the game was played to perfection even as the country was being pulled apart at the seams
From the beginning, '68 was a season rocked by national tragedy and sweeping change. Opening Day was postponed and later played in the shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral. That summer, as the pennant races were heating up, the assassination of Robert Kennedy was later followed by rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But even as tensions boiled over and violence spilled into the streets, something remarkablewas happening in major league ballparks across the country. Pitchers were dominating like never before, and with records falling and shut-outs mounting, many began hailing '68 as "The Year of the Pitcher."In Summer of '68 , Tim Wendel takes us on a wild ride through a season that saw such legends as Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, Don Drysdale, and Luis Tiant set new standards for excellence on the mound, each chasing perfection against the backdrop of one of the most divisive and turbulent years in American history. For some players, baseball would become an insular retreat from the turmoil encircling them that season, but for a select few, including Gibson and the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals, the conflicts of '68 would spur their performances to incredible heights and set the stage for their own run at history.
Meanwhile in Detroit--which had burned just the summer before during one of the worst riots in American history--'68 instead found the city rallying together behind a colorful Tigers team led by McLain, Mickey Lolich, Willie Horton, and Al Kaline. The Tigers would finish atop the American League, setting themselves on a highly anticipated collision course with Gibson's Cardinals. And with both teams' seasons culminating in a thrilling World Series for the ages--one team playing to establish a dynasty, the other fighting to help pull a city from the ashes--what ultimately lay at stake was something even larger: baseball's place in a rapidly changing America that would never be the same.
In vivid, novelistic detail, Summer of '68 tells the story of this unforgettable season--the last before rule changes and expansion would alter baseball forever--when the country was captivated by the national pastime at the moment it needed the game most.
Author Notes
Tim Wendel is the author of nine books, including High Heat , Far From Home , Red Rain , and Castro's Curveball . A founding editor of USA Today Baseball Weekly , he has written for Esquire , GQ , and Washingtonian magazines. He teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University and has appeared on CNN, ESPN, SiriusXM, and NPR, and recently served as an exhibit advisor to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He lives in Vienna, Virginia.
www.timwendel.comReviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Sportswriter Wendel (High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball) mines one of baseball's more absorbing episodes in this rich chronicle of the 1968 season. It's a sociologically resonant account, anchored by the Detroit Tigers' pennant campaign, which helped settle the city after the 1967 race riots, and overshadowed by football's impending eclipse of the national pastime. Wendel sometimes overswings for historical context as he revisits political traumas, from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. to the Chicago Democratic Convention, and roams afield to the Mexico City Olympics and other sports events. He's at his best just sitting in the ballpark, savoring the Year of the Pitcher's classic mound performances: a Catfish Hunter perfect game; scads of no-hitters and shutouts; the legendary seasons posted by the Tigers' 31-game winner Denny McClain and Cardinals ace Bob Gibson-who had an unheard-of 1.12 ERA-before their World Series showdown. Wendel provides telling color commentary-the contrast between the obsessive, steely-eyed Gibson and McClain, a flamboyant press-hound angling for a Vegas nightclub gig, is especially vivid-and sharp analyses of on-field strategizing and play-by-play. If not as significant as the author imagines, the story still packs plenty of meaning. Photos. Agent: Chris Park, Foundry Media. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time, 2010, etc.) foreshortens the season by focusing on the stories of individual Tigers Gates Brown, Willie Horton, Dick McAuliffe and, especially, pitchers Denny McLain, who won an astonishing 31 games, and Mickey Lolich, the Series MVP. The author also looks at Cardinal stars Lou Brock, Curt Flood, Tim McCarver, Orlando Cepeda and especially pitcher Bob Gibson, among the game's all-time greatest. He charts the thrilling Series game by game. More intriguing, though, is the season's unique backdrop: the "Year of the Pitcher" in baseball and the national turmoil surrounding the sports world. In addition to McLain and Gibson's heroics (both won the Cy Young and MVP awards), the season saw five no-hitters (including a perfect game by Catfish Hunter), a consecutive game strikeout record by Luis Tiant and an unprecedented scoreless innings streak by Don Drysdale. Meanwhile, the country was falling apart. Urban riots and massive antiwar demonstrations helped persuade LBJ not to run again. By the time the Chicago Democratic Convention exploded in the streets, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy had already been assassinated. Wendel touches briefly on how the year agitated other sports, but he focuses on the baseball story and the athletes accustomed to ignoring the outside world. They found that impossible to do in the chaotic year of '68. An appealing mix of baseball and cultural history.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Wendel might be overreaching to find causal relationships between politics and baseball in the sea changes that took place for both during 1968 a year of tumult, from the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy to the riotous Democratic convention that August in Chicago, from baseball's last World Series before the onset of the playoff system to the imperceptible passing of the torch from baseball to football as the U.S. national pastime. Still, Wendel details a terrific World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers, set against a Rust Belt (especially Detroit) self-immolating in race rioting and job flight. And he brings into relief the players, influenced by the political climate or not, who had a profound impact on the game: Bob Gibson, whose 1.12 ERA would result in changes that would tip the game to the hitters; Denny McLain, baseball's last 30-game winner; Curt Flood, whose refusal to accept a trade in 1969 would open up free agency for his fellow players; and Mickey Lolich, an Everyman whose steady pitching led to the title for his resilient, even heroic Tigers.--Moores, Alan Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Wendel (fiction & nonfiction writing, Johns Hopkins Univ.; High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time) follows the tradition of homing in on a key year in both baseball and U.S. history. America was being torn apart in 1968, and baseball was under stress, too. The pennant-winning St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers had players at loggerheads with one another. Star players like Cardinal ace Bob Gibson were not immune to racial tension and prejudice. And yet, the ultimate story is one of triumph as these teams provided some respite and hope to a beleaguered country suffering from the effects of the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Wendel has interviewed many of the key participants to bring this crucial year to life. Transcending baseball history alone, this is recommended for baseball fans and students of the era.-P.K. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
