Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

...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.