Customer Reviews

October Men: Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and the Yankees' Miraculous Finish in 1978

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this book because I thought Boys of Summer was one of the greatest baseball books I've ever read, I love the Yankees, and the 1978 Yankee story is a great tale to tell, particularly in the hands of a good storyteller like Kahn. Unfortunately, the formula did not work. What we have here is a mess. Kahn does a terrible job with a great story. The text is peppered with an unnecessarily high proportion of Kahn's pretentious opinions on everything under the sun. I found his knock on David Halbertsam particularly odd, since Kahn seems to be trying to mimic Halberstam's approach to telling the story of the 1964 World Series by focusing primarily on the distict individuals involved rather than trying to tell a chronological history; the only difference is that Halberstam pulled it off while Kahn presents a disjointed series of seemingly unrelated topics. For example, he tries to tell the history of baseball in his prologue, tying that somehow to the 1978 season, but as a reader I was never sure what it all meant. In addition, Kahn focuses on the most idiotic details possible. Do we really have to know that Hoss Radbourne dies of syphilis in 1897 or the name of the girl that Cleon Jones got caught with in a van during spring training? The connection that Kahn draws from the latter incident to the 1978 Yanks is weak at best and is not worthy of coverage at all in comparison to other relevant topics that are infinitely more interesting. Kahn then spends well over half the book "working up" to the 1978 Yankee season, which (by what the cover said) was supposed to be the topic of this book. I normally wouldn't have minded that, because the years leading up to 1978 were also interesting times for Yankee fans. The problem is that Kahn totally blows it here. He does a horrible job of telling the story of how the 1978 team was built and misses several key events and influences. The 1978 team was built painstakingly over a thirteen-year period, beginning with the arrival of Bobby Murcer in 1965 and Thurman Munson in 1969, nurtured by the arrival of Sparky Lyle in 1972 and Graig Nettles in 1973, and supercharged with the arrival of George Steinbrenner and Gabe Paul in 1973. Kahn, for such a self-described insider, misses many influences (some subtle, some not) - the role and influence of Bill Virdon, Bobby Bonds, Elliot Maddox, how the Yankees changed from a medicore club where losing was cheerfully tolerated to the revival of the winningest sports franchise in history, culminating with the conclusion of the 1978 season.

I'm not sure what to make of this book. As a work of history it is useless - much better histories of that era of the Yankees have already been written. As entertainment is is also weak - Sparky Lyle's "Bronx Zoo" was much better in this regard. I was hoping for a engaging read, but instead found myself forcing myself to bull my way through it for fear of wasting my money and in the hope that it would get better. It didn't. Baseball fans - spare yourself the pain and save your money.

Roger Kahn once wrote a good book called "The Boys of Summer." He should have quit while he was ahead. October Men" is nothing short of an embarrassment.

Attempting to write a sweeping story about the 1978 Yankee season that culminated in the "greatest playoff game ever," Kahn's overblown, arrogant writing style detracts from the book, and had me rolling my eyes in exasperation every few pages. The writing style is unusual and difficult to become engaged with, and what is especially perplexing is there are numerous points where he glosses over important moments of the season

The absence of a fact checker is readily apparent, as is the absence of any serious editing; it appears Kahn just handed in a first draft and the publisher went with it. As such, the book is peppered with author's ridiculous comments and opinions on everything from politics to movies to Kahn's own amateurish psychological interpretations. What makes this even worse is that without these harebrained off-the-cuff comments, the story reads like a CPA's telling of baseball history - dull, perfunctory and minus any inspired writing. And his allusion that Willie Mays' great World Series catch of 1954 was off the bat of Bob lemon rather than Vic Wurtz made me want to throw the book across the room.

Kahn's own insecurities are revealed no sooner than the book jacket. In his brief bio, we learn that "The Boys of Summer" was the best baseball book of all time, that he was nominated for various prizes, and his wife's middle name is "Colt." You would think a man of this advanced years would be less concerned about his own image. Apparently not. Kahn uses "October Men" as a weapon to bash those he personally dislikes and as a polish rag to lionize those he approves of.

There are plenty of good baseball writers out there; realistically you don't have to go farther than David Halberstam. Or Crabbe Evers if you want to read baseball fiction. And if you want to read a really good insider's view of the 1978 Yankee season, Sparky Lyle's "The Bronx Zoo" does a much better job of giving the reader insight into the Yankees of the late 1970s.

Only a diehard Yankee fan of that era will enjoy "October Men" and my guess is even those folks will say upon finishing it, that it was mostly a waste of time. Save your money for something better.

I imagine it must be both a blessing and a curse to have written the Greatest Baseball Book of All Time. A blessing, from the outer recognition and inner satisfaction such an achievement brings; and a curse, because every time you again put ink to paper, your new child will be measured against your most successful offspring.

I read the review stating that Roger Kahn's "October Men" is in the tradition of "Boys of Summer" and I ask in wonder if that writer read the earlier work. The first third of "Boys" is Kahn's memoir of growing up in Brooklyn as a Dodger fan, then covering the great team of 1952-53; but the heart of the book is his story of revisiting these men in middle age as they cope with life's challenges. Kahn himself said it's not a book about baseball but about "time and what time does to us all." A true classic, and deservedly so.

That being said, the focus of "October Men" is on the wild, raucous Yankees of 1977-78. Although there are notations on what's happened to many of those Yanks in the quarter century that's passed, the spotlight is clearly on those two wild seasons. And that's just fine. It's a great story, and Kahn brings all his observational and descriptive skills to bear in telling it with insight, humor, and narrative power. Anyone who lived through that era should enjoy having it brought back to life so vividly; and for those youngsters who may wonder what all the fuss was about involving George and Billy and Reggie and Thurman and crew, there's no better introduction to their story.

Considering that the 1978 Yankee team is my all-time favorite, it was disappointing to realize that the first 200 pages of a roughly 360 page book was NOT really about the 1978 season. Kahn spends those first 200 pages talking about other "miracle" teams and great seasons, the origin of the Yankees, and Yankee owners and players pre-1978. If I hear about the "dreary CBS Yankees" one more time...

If you already have some grasp of baseball and Yankee history, that makes those 200 pages mostly a wash. That stuff, as well as mini-bios of 1978 Yankee ownership, executives, and players, should have been put into the first 10 pages or better integrated into an account of the '78 season.

Beyond that, Kahn seems a bit pompous and playing for history.
He has unfavorable things to say about more than one journalist from the era, while getting in things like how "The Boys of Summer outleaped (the New York) Times Snide and went to the top of the best-seller lists." (p. 247)

Great, Roger, but I was hoping this book would be less about your reminiscing about baseball, Yankee (and some Dodger!) history and more for the educated fan of the 1978 Yankees. "The Bronx Zoo," by Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock, while not up to the standard set by "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton, is still your best bet when thinking about picking up a book about the 1978 Yankee squad.

Forests have been leveled to accommodate the number of books that have been written about the New York Yankees especially during the Steinbrenner years, and you have to wonder what can be said that hasn't been written about numerous times before. However, if I were to have only one book on this subject (I have several) this latest offering by Roger Kahn is the one I would choose. I admit to being partial to Kahn's writing in regard to baseball, but he delves into the personalities of George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, Al Rosen, Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Sparky Lyle, Gabe Paul, Dick Young, Larry MacPhail, and others with anecdotes and humor you probably haven't heard before. This book is littered with stress and alcohol as conflicting personalities clash their way through the 1978 season. Yes, part of the book provides a little history in regard to the Red Sox and Yankees in regard to their previous ownership, but even in this, the author tells these stories with quotes I haven't read in previous books. If you have enjoyed reading other books on this subject, and especially if you enjoy Roger Kahn's writing, this book will not disappoint you.

I'm really appalled at the typos that show up in so many hardcover books these days. This one is about the worst. Call me weird, but I think that if a publisher expects you to fork over $25 for a harcover book, they should at least proofread it for typos. To wit: "(She) later became a a celebrity." That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Typos aside, Kahn has picked a worthy topic for this book. It's a fast-paced, breezy read that will be enjoyed most by baseball fans who lived through the seasons described. I don't remember Kahn being as opinionated in his previous books as he is in this one, and often times these opinions get in the way and, quite honestly, are hard to shrug off and move on from, particularly when he refers to fundamentalist Christianity as a "religious cult." He takes pot shots at Roger Angell's writing skills, and David Halberstam's fact-checking skills in his book "Summer of '49" (which is particularly amusing considering the aforementioned sloppy editing job on this book as a whole.)
Recommended for baseball fans, but stay away from the hardcover edition. I have not seen the paperback, so I can't say whether or not anybody proofread it.

The Yankees are my all-time favorite team so when this book came out, I was excited to see some new take on that incredible comeback Yankee team of '78. Boy, was I disappointed. Not only does Kahn barely look at the 78 Yankees until well into the book, he spends most of the time promoting his connections to other famous people, bad-mouthing favorites like Billy Martin and Thurman Munson, and rattling on about rehashed stuff. Save your money!

Appears to have been written merely to vent spleen and fulfill contractual obligations with the publisher. An entirely unnecessary chancre of a book, mean-spirited and low-intentioned. Sadly, Kahn succeeds only in bullying precious publishing resources away from more deserving younger writers.

Your ability to enjoy "October Men," Roger Kahn's look at the miraculous finish of the New York Yankees in 1978, will be dependent mainly on how much you enjoy digressions (and parenthetical comments). Those who expect a chronological look at what happened during the 1978 season will not really find it until chapter nine, because the first half of this book is devoted to setting the stage for what happened that year. Kahn is inspired to touch upon a wide range of topics to bring us to the pivotal moment in the history of the universe when Buck Dent hit a baseball into the netting atop the Green Monster in Fenway Park. Where was I at that moment? Driving down Coors Road on my way to a late afternoon class at the University of New Mexico, screaming "Bucky! Bucky! Bucky!" while pounding on the dashboard (but I, too, digress).

Once I finished this book I went back and reconsidered its structure. Kahn's prologue sets up the idea that the Yankee championship teams of 1977 and 1978 were the greatest number of clashing egos on a single ball club in baseball history, and sets up Bobby Thomson's famous 1951 homerun that gave the New York Giants the pennant over the Brooklyn Dodgers as the moment and season against which the 1978 season would be judged. Kahn actually has a thesis for this book, which is that: "Remarkably and uniquely, 1978 comes down to us as the year in which Yankee news management failed completely, and a very rugged Yankee baseball team did not" (17). Keep that in mind and you will understand why he talks as much about Al Rosen as he does Ron Guidry.

The first eight chapters of "October Men" sets the stage for the season, with the first chapter specifically focusing on what was happening the day of the playoff game before the first pitch. The second chapter talks about the "New York Red Sox" to show how the sale of Babe Ruth and other deals created a link between the Yankees and Boston in not only the 1920s but throughout the rest of the century. Kahn then devotes chapters to "Steinbrenner Unbound," Catfish Hunter and free agency, Billy Martin as "The Dark Prince," Reggie Jackson, and the Yankee team that won the 1977 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with Reggie hitting three home runs on three swings against three different pitchers in the final game at Yankee Stadium.

The rest of the book is devoted to the 1978 season, beginning with the bickering in spring training. This part is also divided in half, first building to the firing of Billy Martin, and then detailing how the Yankees came from ten-and-a-half games behind the Red Sox (on July 25 when Bob Lemon took over as manager) to force a playoff and make Bucky Dent's middle name a curse word throughout New England. However, throughout the book Kahn writes about a lot of other topics, such as female reporters in the lockeroom, Jimmy Carter's decision not to authorize the construction of American neutron bombs, and having to memorize the Latin phrase "Alea iacta est" ("the die is cast") when he was a schoolboy.

I am not sure if Kahn is correct in his assessment that by rising above their turmoil the 1978 Yankees became an inspiration for the country, but he certainly chronicles that turmoil. Ultimately Kahn talks much more about what happened off the playing field, where alcoholism, broken homes, and racism all came into play. Repeatedly he tries to explain the enigma that was Billy Martin, and in comparison turns Al Rosen into something of a baseball saint Throughout the book there are lots of interesting baseball stories (e.g., Joe DiMaggio's thoughts on Jackie Robinson, Joe Gordon decking a fan for anti-Semetic remarks) and a fair share of insights into the game (e.g., if you take into account all the times they swing and miss or hit a foul ball, a great hitter actually succeeds less than 10% of the time). I enjoyed "October Men" because I do not mind being all over the place to tell a story (I have a weakness for parenthetical commentary myself), but I understand Kahn's writing style will drive some to distraction. The chief attraction here will be for Yankee fans who, inspired by Aaron "bleeping" Boone's series clinching homerun last Fall, will want to take a walk down this particular memory lane.

I enjoyed parts of this book, particularly those that related directly the turbulant 1978 season. However, Roger Kahn has an annoying tendancy to jump into subjects that really aren't related to the 1978 Yankees in some kind of effort to craft a wider view of the game and country at that point in time. (A treatise on Jimmy Carter and Rod Laver's lack of effort in a guaranteed payment tennis match, for example.)

To me, it seems as though Kahn had all these stories,anecdotes, and opinions that he wanted to share, and jammed them in regardless of the fit with the overall subject or the point he was trying to make in a particular chapter. Perhaps he intends this to be his last book and didn't want some stories and opinions to go untold. I found myself thinking this was a poor attempt at the storytelling method used so effectively by Sebastian Junger in "The Perfect Storm." Take an incident and expand on it to explain how and why those individuals were there at that particular point in time and how history contributed to to the central incident. Whereas Junger creates a gripping tale with this methodology, Kahn created a book that has an odd flow to it, and ultimately, misses the mark.

I did appreciate some of the behind scenes stories about Steinbrenner and his relationship with Martin and Jackson. However, I found Kahn to be vicious in his opinions of his peers in the sports reporting world, like Howard Cosell, Dick Young and Dick Schaap, that are unable to defend themselves. To me, it came across as vindictive and a chance to get in the last word.

It's worth a read only if you are a diehard Yankee fan. Otherwise, skip it and read "Moneyball" instead.