David Halberstam's New York Times bestselling classic chronicle of baseball's most magnificent season, as seen through the battle royale between Joe DiMaggio's Yankees and Ted Williams's Red Sox for the heart of a nation.
With incredible skill, passion, and insight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam returns us to the miraculous summer of '49 ... and to a glorious time when the dreams of a now almost forgotten America rested on the crack of a bat.
With the airwaves saturated with so much sporting choice, it's hard to imagine how, not that long ago, baseball so completely dominated the landscape and captured imaginations. Given the 1949 season that veteran journalist David Halberstam meticulously recreates, maybe it's not so hard after all. It was a season of great public and personal drama for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, with the conflict finally resolving itself in a Yankee pennant following a head-to-head showdown on the final day of the season. Each team was led by a star of the highest magnitude: Joe DiMaggio spurred the Yankees despite missing half the season with a foot injury; Ted Williams virtually carried the Sox on his back, missing an unprecedented third Triple Crown by mere decimal points on his batting average. Halberstam focuses much of his narrative on the trials of these two individual sporting giants, adding fine supporting performances by Yogi Berra, Ellis Kinder, Dom DiMaggio, even restaurateur Toots Shoor. Both on and off the field, Halberstam beautifully captures the ethos of a more innocent game that no longer exists, played by heroes far more driven by their pride than by their salaries.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Summer of 49:
After reading this book you will see how great Baseball was pre 1965. The author describes perfectly the atmosphere, the players, the writers/announcers, how great the game was!
Simply put, A Great Author at his Best!!!:
The catalog of work by David Halberstam is outstanding in so many different aspects. It would seem that he is at his best when he writes about sports. While I can recommend any of his works, Summer of 49 is probably the best! Halberstam does a great job of not only painting an era but painting the giants who played in them. Williams and DiMaggio are given special care and shown to be complex and interesting characters in this drama, but then so are the role players like Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr.more info
Baseball. Yankees vs. Red Sox. Halberstam. It's the Triple Crown.:
It would be be impossible to put the following three things together -- baseball, Yankees vs. Red Sox and David Halberstam -- and not have the result be a masterpiece. I've been a Yankee fan since I can first remember watching baseball in the mid-70s and lived for baseball and the Yankees. I still remember attending my first World Series game in 1978 (Game 3) at Yankee Stadium after the memorable 1978 battle with the Sox. For me, the heroes were different that those of Halberstam, the times different... more info
Excellently Done:
"Summer of `49" focuses on the rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees as they fought for first place during the Summer of 1949. This was before the days of the wild card and first place meant a trip to the playoffs while second place meant a trip home. The two teams fought for first place all season long and (perhaps fittingly) it all came down to the last game of the season. "Summer of `49" is an excellent book about baseball, the men that played it, the men who ran it, the men who... more info
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