Baseball in '41: A Celebration of the "Best Baseball Season Ever" [Paperback]

Robert W. Creamer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1992

A celebration the best baseball seasons in history discusses DiMaggio's fifty-six-game hitting streak, Ted Williams's .406 batting average, the Yankees classic World Series, and such baseball personalities as Lefty Grove, Bobby Feller, and Hank Greenberg. Reprint. NYT.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

1941: Joe DiMaggio hit in 56 consecutive games (still a record), Ted Williams batted over .400 (an average not matched in the past 50 years), and catcher Mickey Owen dropped a game-ending third strike that figured largely in the Dodgers' loss of the World Series. In that year of "disintegrating peace," the author, who would later become an editor of Sports Illustrated , was an 18-year-old Yankee fan. Although the book focuses primarily on the national pastime, it also includes social and political history, for during "the best baseball season ever," Roosevelt readied the country for war. While he follows the travails of Boston's Williams and Detroit's Hank Greenberg, the first diamond superstar to be drafted, Creamer is very much a New York chauvinist, so the book's chief audience may be regional. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC selection; author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The author of Babe ( LJ 6/15/74) and Stengel: His Life and Times ( LJ 2/15/84), and with Ralph Houk of Season of Glory ( LJ 9/1/86), recalls this momentous year in baseball and world history. He reprises Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, Ted Williams's .406 batting average, Hank Greenberg and the draft, the furious Dodgers-Cardinals pennant fight, and the ensuing World Series. All this is portrayed against the looming U.S. entry into World War II. The choice here for the season's best baseball book. For all popular and serious sports collections.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (May 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140169431
• ISBN-13: 978-0140169430
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,906,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN ADVENTUROUS TRIP TO A FABLED TIME IN OUR NATIONAL PASTIME, October 16, 1999

By 

jeffrey bednar ([e-mail]) (KANEOHE,HAWAII) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball in '41: A Celebration of the "Best Baseball Season Ever" (Paperback)

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE JOE DIMAGGIO? THIS IS THE SEASON OF JOE'S STREAK, TED WILLIAMS BATTING .400, THE DODGERS WINNING THE PENNANT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 21 YEARS,AND THE UNITED STATES ON THE BRINK OF ENTERING THE WAR. I FELT AS THOUGH I WAS TRANSPORTED BACK TO OUR LAST YEAR OF INNOCENCE AND EBBETS FIELD ALL IN THE SPACE OF ONE EVENING. THIS BOOK IS MORE THAN JUST BASEBALL IT IS HISTORY AS SEEN BY A YOUNG MAN WHO HAS PASSIONS AND LOVES THAT HE RETAINS EVEN 50 YEARS LATER. HE ALSO GIVES THE APPROPRIATE CREDIT TO KENNY KELTNER AND THE REST OF THE CLEVELAND INDIANS FOR PUTTING A STOP TO THE MOST FAMOUS STREAK IN ALL OF SPORT.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Season in Baseball History., January 6, 2000

By 

Michael J. Berquist - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball in '41: A Celebration of the "Best Baseball Season Ever" (Paperback)

Baseball has perhaps never had a season of the importance of 1941. In the last year of the American "innocence" before the beginning of World War II, unassailable records were broken and Americans got to see some of the greatest baseball ever played. It was the season of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, Ted Williams astounding .406 batting average, and the improbable run of the Brooklyn Dodgers to the National League pennant.

The end would be one of the best world series ever, a series that would see the first of the New York Yankees numerous world series victories over the Dodgers. Finally, the clouds broke and America was at war.

Author Robert Creamer has done an outstanding job weaving in tales from his own life and coupling them with observations about the season as it unfolded. Creamer is a very readable author who gives the reader an outstanding insight into what life was like in America in 1941.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I love baseball but I'm not a wonk..., November 22, 2000

By 

JOHN GODFREY (Milwaukee ,WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baseball in 41 (Audio Cassette)

...so in parts I was a little disappointed. I realize that baseball is the game of statistics more than any other. But the game has a more prosaic side. I live for stories about baseball, the opinions, arguments & nostalgia of baseball as it was 60 years ago. I enjoyed Robert Creamer's blend of his life intertwined with baseball & the World War brewing outside his idyllic & innocent exsistence. But then he would go on: "nine days in the early part of 1941 neither the Dodgers or the Cards were in the lead. First place change hands seven times in June. Huh? The Dodgers were in first place 78 days & the Cards 73 days. Come on. Tell me about Joe D's 56 game hitting streak & Teddy Ballgame's All-Star home-run & how he got to a .406 average. He did eventually. I realize you can't tell a baseball story without numbers & factoids, but I don't need a list of every minor leaguer that had a 50 game hitting streak. Tell me about Leo's temper, his run-ins with the gm, Lee MacPhail, Mungo, the umpires, reporters & everyone else. The story of Mickey Owens rough play & passed ball, Lefty Grove's struggle to get his 300th win: that's the ticket. Stuff I didn"t know about baseball players & the draft in 1940 & truly that most wonderful year of baseball, 1941.