Contrary to popular belief, the final words of the National Anthem are not “Play ball!”
Other than that, baseball is just about as firmly ensconced as the national pastime as it can be without legislative sanction.
Oh sure, football and basketball compete with baseball, but there is an almost mythic quality about baseball that sets it above mere athletic competition. The mystical baseball novel is a literary genre of its own. Consider The Natural by Bernard Malamud, Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella (Field of Dreams), The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant by Douglass Wallop (Damn Yankees), and If I Never Get Back by Darryl Brock. But hands down, the best baseball book is a nonfiction work—David Halberstam’s Summer of ’49.
Keep in mind that I’m a guy who doesn’t follow baseball and rarely goes to a ballpark. But for some reason I enjoy reading about it. This is one of my favorites—not just among baseball books, but all books. Halberstam brings his reporting talent to bear on one idyllic season and a classic pennant race between perennial American League rivals the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
Hope springs eternal
Every spring is born with limitless possibilities, especially for baseball fans. But 1949 as chronicled by Halberstam was special. First string players who had gone into the service during World War II were back on the field and the game was regaining the luster it had lost during the war years. Joe DiMaggio was back with the Yankees and Ted Williams was with the Red Sox and all was right with the world.
But it wasn’t just back to the good old days; America was coming out of a post-war recession and was on the cusp of a new age and a boom like no one had experienced before. Radio was bringing the games into the homes of fans in every city and experiments with television were promising even more changes. It was the best of both worlds, the past and the future.
For the fans in the ball park, listening in taverns and at home, the duel that shaped up that year was more than just baseball at its best; it was important stuff. This was life.
Percentages
One of the attractions of baseball is that it is a game of statistics. For fans, the excitement lasts long after game itself as they pore over box scores and records in past games and size up the chances of their teams in the coming game. Also, more than basketball and football, baseball is a game of strategy and tactics.
In other games, whole teams are on the field all the time. In baseball the lineup changes with every play as each player comes to bat and is either put out or gets on base, and runners advance, are put out or score. Strategies change with every batter and with every pitch. DiMaggio at bat with two men on is a different ballgame than with the bases empty. And Williams with two strikes is a different game than when taking his first pitch. It is said that baseball is slow and boring. But a fan who understands the strategy involved is seeing (or hearing) twice as much game as the viewer who is just watching the players.
Halberstam chronicles this complexity beautifully through the eyes of the players and the fans that season. And you don’t have to be a fan steeped in the strategy and tactics of baseball to enjoy this. In fact, there are special joys for the non-fan. Who knew that Joe DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper, had a younger brother, Dom, playing for the Red Sox? (Their older brother, Vince, was also a major league player.) And reading this book is twice as much fun if you don’t know how the pennant race comes out.
If you’re a baseball fan you probably already know who won the American League pennant that year, but you’ll enjoy reading Summer of ’49 anyway. Don’t tell anyone else who is reading the book, though. Let them enjoy the suspense, which continues into the last game of the season.
You’ll be able to find this great book at your local library or bookstore. And if this season isn’t being kind to your team, wait ’til next year!