Customer Reviews

1941--he Greatest Year In Sports: Two Baseball Legends, Two Boxing Champs, and the Unstoppable Thoroughbred Who Made History in the Shadow of War

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I have read the definitive biographies recently written about Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams and wondered if I really needed to take a chance of this book. What a pleasant surprise! Author Mike Vaccaro kept me riveted in his description of DiMaggio gulping down coffee and chain smoking his way in his quest for another hit to keep his streak going. The personality of Teddy Ballgame comes through loud and clear in his chase to become the first .400 hitter since Bill Terry in 1930. I am not a fan of boxing or horse racing, but the Joe Louis and Billy Conn fight held at the Polo Grounds made me feel as though I was there. I couldn't put the book down. I'd heard of Whirlway, but that's as much as I knew. He won the triple crown in 1941 and was famous for his long tail. I'd heard Clem McCarthy describe the race on a Gillette phonograph record several years ago, and this book made it more meaningful to me. The same with the Louis/Conn fight. This is more than a sports' book. It is American history with the country wondering if war would soon include them. What a year! Thanks, Mike Vaccaro, for bringing it alive to your readers.

I am a big fan of Mike Vaccaro's writing and he has impressed me yet again. Mike lyrically weaves the details, histories and human dimensions of the four incredible athletic events of 1941; all in the context of an America on its way to a nation altering war. He adds so many dimensions to the stories through his detailed research and anecdotal style. It's a great summertime read for sports fans and history fans alike.

An eminently readable, enjoyable and enlightening work, one that weaves together not only Joe DiMaggio's and Ted Williams' early spectacular achievements, Vaccaro adds world history to the mix, breathing life into the memorable year, 1941. Throw in Billy Conn versus Joe Louis and mention the leading race horse of the day, and you have a full year of records, successes, and noteworthy competition -- darkened by Lou Gehrig's rapid demise and death and the Japanese and German march across the globe. Using daily highlights of games and events, quotes and personal angles on the stars, interviews with men who were there, and other sporting details, Vaccaro makes 1941 a wonderful year for sports fans.

Mike Vaccaro's 1941 THE GREATEST YEAR IN SPORTS reads with all the excitement that well written sports stories should. Whirlaway's Triple Crown, the Louis-Conn title fight, Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak and Ted Williams' .406 batting average are four of the most significant events in sports history and for them to have occurred in the same year is remarkable. The political events in Europe and America are the backdrop for these events.

Whirlaway a three year old thoroughbred, that many thought was past his prime wins the Triple Crown and ultimately becomes the leading money winner, surpassing Seabiscuit. Eddie Arcaro replaces the regular jockey hours before the Derby, "connects" with him and rides Whirlaway to records that would stand until Secretariat in the 1970's. Vaccaro's writing style captures the drama and excitement of the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes such that it seems you're there, against the rail, shouting "here comes Whirlaway" along with the rest of the crowd.

The second event is the Joe Louis Billy Conn heavyweight fight. Louis was the reigning heavyweight champion while Conn held the light heavyweight crown neither fighter was being challenged by their competition and Conn knows that the only way to get respect and larger purses was to fight Louis and win. Vaccaro describes the pre-game hype and the personal side of each fighter; the description of the fight itself is like being ringside. The fight set records for gate and size of the purse as well as radio listeners. Louis wins in what may have been his toughest fight.

DiMaggio and Williams battled it out during the entire summer; both had significant hitting streaks with DiMaggio's likely never to be broken; while Williams' .406 batting average made him the last major leaguer to reach that milestone which is also destined to last for a long time. The two men had very different personalities, DiMaggio quiet and reserved; Williams cocky and verbose. Both exceptionally talented; DiMaggio assumed the mantle of Lou Gehrig, who died during the 1941 season, and led the team to a World Series win while Williams played for a Red Sox team that was mediocre at best. Both feats required incredible abilities and luck. Changes to baseball make the likelihood of a 56 game hitting streak or hitting over .400 unlikely.

These events served as a distraction to what was becoming the imminent involvement of America in the War and many of the sports figures, including Louis, DiMaggio and Williams would leave sports behind and do their part, even Whirlaway would compete in races that sold war bonds.

For the sports fan and general reader 1941 THE GREATEST YEAR IN SPORTS is an exciting, informative and enjoyable book.

I was shopping with my wife & daughter in downtown Boston and managed to sneak away for a latte in one of those chi-chi bookstores. As I walked over to a table to sip my liquid treasure I passed by a table full of display books and this was one of them. I picked it up and started reading. It was about 30 minutes later my wife found me, and I was so involved in this book I didn't see her approaching the table.

This is one of the most facinating books I have read in a long time.

Yes, by all means sports fans will enjoy the four major events convered by "Greatest Year", but what is also convered is a years worth of major events also taking place on the world stage. 1941 was the last year America would know peace until 1945, and everybody knew, at some level, that war was coming and it was going to be ugly. Sports got us off page #1 and something else to think about for a while.

My favorite sporting item from this book was being reminded that while Joe DiMaggio was famously chasing his hitting streak, Ted Williams was quietly performing his own unique feat hitting .406 in an era when there was no such thing as steroids, Nautilus machines, Phd'd sports trainers or a "sacrifice fly". An era when pitchers never hesitated to knock batters down and umpires casually called a "ball" as punishment.

My favorite political item was learning that President Herbert Hoover warned against a rush to war. His concern? Wasting American lives in order to rescue Europe from Nazi enslavement only to see it handed over into Soviet enslavement. I had no idea anyone foresaw the "Iron Curtain", but Hoover did.

This is a great book, and a must read!

Mike Vaccaro does it again. His New York Post columns are great, but his ability to pull a book together is fantastic. He also just recently wrote the foreword to the SportsByTheNumbers Yankees book: New York Yankees: An Interactive Guide to the World of Sports (Sports by the Numbers) If you love Mike Vaccaro, the New York Yankees, or baseball, then you need to buy both of these books.

Every summer I like to read a baseball book about the history of the game. Adding boxing and horse racing gave me an even better perspective about sports in that bygone era

Simply a magnificient book, a great read, absolutely the best sports book of 2007. This one shouldn't be missed. Mike, thank you for authoring a classic.

I found the prose somewhat tedious and Vaccaro's scene painting dull. This was an incredible year, but I never felt entranced, as those who lived through it did, but only moderately interested. The writing is mostly drawn from contemporary newspapers, which adds the glow of excitement but loses the analysis. The Joe and Ted we read about here are glosses on the far more complex and nasty men they were, and I felt that the whole thing tried too hard to be a cultural exploration and didn't try hard enough to tell the story with gusto. Mike Vaccaro is not a historian, and it shows here.

Just didn't work for me.