Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 796.357 HAL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 796.357 HAL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | 796.3576 HAL | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER THE BEST SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR "October 1964 should be a hit with old-time baseball fans, who'll relish the opportunity to relive that year's to-die-for World Series, when the dynastic but aging New York Yankees squared off against the upstart St. Louis Cardinals. It should be a hit with younger students of the game, who'll eat up the vivid portrayals of legends like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris of the Yankees and Bob Gibson and Lou Brock of the Cardinals. Most of all, however, David Halberstam's new book should be a hit with anyone interested in understanding the important interplay between sports and society." --The Boston Globe "Compelling...1964 is a chronicle of the end of a great dynasty and of a game, like the country, on the cusp of enormous change." --Newsweek "Halberstam's latest gives us the feeling of actually being there--in another time, in the locker rooms and in the minds of baseball legends. His time and effort researching the book result in a fluency with his topic and a fluidity of writing that make the reading almost effortless....Absorbing." --San Francisco Chronicle "Wonderful...Memorable...Halberstam describes the final game of the 1964 series accurately and so dramatically, I almost thought I had forgotten the ending." --The Washington Post Book World "Superb reporting...Incisive analysis...You know from the start that Halberstam is going to focus on a large human canvas...One of the many joys of this book is the humanity with which Halberstam explores the characters as well as the talents of the players, coaches and managers. These are not demigods of summer but flawed, believable human beings who on occasion can rise to peaks of heroism." --Chicago Sun-Times
Author Notes
David Halberstam was born on April 10, 1934 in New York City and later attended Harvard University. After graduating in 1955, Halberstam worked at a small daily newspaper until he attained a position at the Nashville Tennessean.
Halberstam has written over 20 books including The Children, a written account of his coverage of the Civil Rights Movement; The Best and Brightest, which was a bestseller; and The Game and October, 1964, both detailing his fascination of sports. Halberstam also won a Pulitzer Prize for his reports on the Vietnam War while working for the New York Times. He was killed in a car crash on April 23, 2007 at the age of 73.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Kirkus Review
The riveting story of how two very different baseball teams, reflective of the times in America, got to the 1964 World Series. Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Halberstam (The Fifties, 1993, etc.) looks at America's baseball diamonds in this volume, a bookend to his earlier Summer of '49 (1989). Halberstam's premise is that vast changes had occurred in American society in the 15 years that divided those two baseball seasons, and the teams that played in the 1964 World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees, reflected opposing currents in a deeply conflicted American society. For the Yankees, it was the last hurrah of their near-total baseball dominance that began in 1949; Halberstam contends that they were emblematic of the era coming to an end. With fading superstars such as Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford, the Yankees stood for the established order, both symbolically, in the minds of baseball fans, and in reality, in their dependence on power over speed and in management's reluctance to sign black players. The Cardinals, by contrast, were one of the best-integrated teams in baseball. They depended on strategy and speed, and highly intelligent stars like Bob Gibson, Louis Brock, Tim McCarver, and Curt Flood represented a new breed of ballplayer. Halberstam weaves the life stories of dozens of players, managers, coaches, scouts, and team owners into this deceptively simple but extremely revealing chronicle. If Halberstam is to be faulted, it is in his underlying assumption that pure love of baseball transcends all evils: apart from a few crusty and anachronistic old managers, none of the villains in this book get any closer to the playing field than the owner's or the press box. A powerful and entertaining examination of the forces transforming baseball, and the country, in a pivotal period in the history of America and its national pastime. (First serial to Parade; Book-of-the-Month Club main selection)
Choice Review
Although Halberstam focuses on a description of the events culminating in the 1964 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees, his is not primarily a baseball book. Rather, it is a penetrating analysis of American culture in the 1960s and particularly of how this culture produced the character of the players involved in this historic series. It details the mores of the team subculture, and the evolving relationships between the races, and gets into the minds and hearts of the principal players better than do most similar books. Halberstam interviewed most of the important participants and provides an explanation for the absence of three stars: Mantle, Kubek, and Flood. Not explained is why Whitey Ford was not among those interviewed. Halberstam's writing is direct and informative so that it holds the reader's attention throughout. The book concludes with an interesting but unessential epilogue. There are 16 pages of pertinent photographs. One of the best books on the subject; it will appeal to a wide readership. All levels. W. F. Gustafson; emeritus, San Jose State University
Library Journal Review
This follow-up to the best-selling Summer of '49 assesses the Yankee-Cardinal World Series of 1964. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
