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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
How Fortunate You Are If You Can Remember This Time Period, June 11, 2007
This book would be of special interest to those who grew up as baseball fans in New York City during the years between 1947-1957. I first remember baseball games beginning in 1951 as a fan of the Detroit Tigers. However, I vividly remember listening to those classic World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers of the 1950's. The book is filled with artifacts from this time period such as baseball cards (which I have in my collection), full color photos from Sport or Look magazine of such stars as Joe Page, Al Dark, Hank Bauer, Sandy Amoros, Don Zimmer, Willie Mays, and another of Mays with Leo Durocher. They are beautiful pictures. Other keepsakes from the Yankees, Giants, and Dodgers that would have had little value at the time, but could fetch a nice price now are also shown. Each chapter is written by a different author who is contributing his own area of expertise to this historical era. I did find an error on page 154 which shows a photo of Bauer and Mantle with another Yankee in between which is listed as Don Larsen after his perfect game. I don't know who the individual in the middle of the photo is, but it is most certainly not Larsen. Neither are the looks Don Larsen nor the haircut his. Larsen had a butch haircut. Also, on page 155 a photo is shown of Mantle leading off first base (same picture on page 156) with the caption on page 155 claiming to be the Yankees' dugout during Larsen's masterpiece. That said, if you are a baseball fan from this time period, whether a fan of the New York teams or not, this is a book that will bring back a lot of precious memories. Many of these individuals have passed on, but their memory will always remain with me.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Photos, But Text is Sub-Par, September 10, 2007
Some great & rare photos, but the text commentary is sub-par. Although the greatest baseball player in New York during the time period covered was Duke Snider, this book has the usual emphasis on Mickey Mantle, then Willie Mays, then Snider. There's a full chapter on Jackie Robinson, a chapter on the Brooklyn Dodgers leaving Brooklyn (by Michael Shapiro, who wrote his own book on this subject). Good sections on the Giants-Dodgers rivalry & the New York ballparks. You will find great photos of Jackie Robinson (20 of them), Pee Wee Reese (4), Roy Campanella (8), Gil Hodges (4), Preacher Roe (1), Mays (11), Snider (only 8, but a 2 full page photo, & another full page photo), Carl Erskine (2), Mickey Mantle (who gets a chapter to himself, 22), Joe Black (1), Carl Furillo (2), Don Newcombe (4), Sandy Amoros (1, a full color page), Johnny Podres (2), Billy Cox (1), Clem Labine (1), Washington Park, Ebbets Field in 1920 with neighborhood, Hilltop Park, & the Polo Grounds in 1900. An index would have been helpful, but there is none. Worth buying for the photos alone.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You Can't Steal Home Again, May 24, 2008
This review is from: The Glory Days: New York Baseball 1947-1957 (Paperback)
Having missed this era by a hair but born in it's fading penumbra (1960), THE GLORY DAYS held a fascination for me. Unable (because of time and distance constraints) to visit the excellent Glory Days exhibit at the equally excellent Museum of The City of New York, I found this book to be a quality substitute for being there, although I found the text a little thin, and the emphasis on the Yankees to be a bit overdone.
Between 1947 and 1957 New York was home to three Major League ballclubs, the Yankees, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the Giants. The Yankees were and are an overwhelming force in baseball, but less remembered is the power of the Brooklyn Dodgers matched only by their fans' passion, and the strong presence of the Giants.
In ELEVEN seasons, AT LEAST one New York team (and often two) appeared in the World Series TEN times. With only sixteen clubs in Major League Baseball altogether, New York was preeminent in the sport, and this preeminence was helped by the fact that New York was the unofficial capital city of Earth as the newly-anointed home of the U.N., the newspaper publishing center of the world, the television production and broadcasting mecca for all of America, the then-largest city on the planet, and about as highly as diverse a place as could be found anywhere. The story of baseball in the postwar era was the story of New York, the story of New York was the story of America, and as America went so went the rest of humanity in the 1950s. As society forged ahead into a more tolerant era, baseball led the way, and became the common man's bellweather of change.
The book is arranged in nine chapters representing innings. Each covers a period or an issue and brings us from the shadow of the war years to the Dodger/Giant abandonment of New York, an abandonment which presaged the rise of Los Angeles as a major urban center and a rival for New York's dominance in communications and population.
By focusing on such mundane items as torn ticket stubs, dog-eared baseball cards, chocolate stained ice cream Dixie Cups with "Your Favorite Player" lids, The Museum of The City of New York tells a sociological story. Of importance is the psychological difference between Yankee fans, Dodger fans, and Giant fans, who all held each other in mutually affectionate contempt. The Dodgers were the stubble-bearded trailblazers, integrating baseball as the Fifties dawned; the Yankees were pinstriped and proper and self-righteous; the Giants staggered along (sometimes with dazzling success) as the faded diva of New York baseball.
The question of whether The Mick, the Duke or Willie Mays was the greatest Center Fielder in baseball was a burning issue, and with a schedule allowing the National League rival Giants and Dodgers to play each other 22 times a season, it was far from academic. It was also enjoyable, and THE GLORY YEARS is bittersweetly nostalgic.
A fine and fun presentation by a very fine institution which deserves every dedicated reader's support.
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