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Title: October 1964 by David Halberstam ISBN: 0-449-98367-6 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 11 April, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.45 (40 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Out with the old...
Comment: I am convinced that if David Halberstam had dedicated his career to the subject, he would be known as the best baseball writer of all time. As it is he has written two of the best single-season accounts around, "Summer of '49" and "October 1964".
Halberstam writes up the Cardinals-Yankees clash as a symbol of the changing times in early 1960s baseball. The new game, represented by the Cardinals, is marked by speed on the field and by a more educated, independent class of player off the field. The new game, of course, is driven by the influx of the great black players into the National League. Pridefully and foolishly, the Yankees have refused to adapt to integration, believing that their greatness in the past will carry their dominance into the future.
The excellence of the book comes through in Halberstam's ability to develop the personalities of the principals while setting up the final showdown of old vs. new, Yankees vs. Cardinals. The biographical sketches alone make the book well worth reading. I especially enjoyed the portrait of the complicated star Bob Gibson. Several interesting sublots also evolve, including the hiring and firing of Yogi Berra, and the jaw-dropping baseball-stupidity of owner Gussie Busch, who drove out the general manager and field manager of a championship team.
This is my favorite kind of baseball writing, it looks beyond the statistics and contemporary newspaper articles to show the characters of some of the men who changed baseball. I hope Halberstam has a few more baseball books in him.
Rating: 4
Summary: Baseball's relevance to civil rights struggle
Comment: David Halberstam uses the story of the 1964 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees to explain the dynamics of the African-American struggle for civil rights in the U.S. And he does it in a way that isn't pedantic or preachy.
Halberstam's thesis in "October 1964" is that the Cardinals embody the virtue of integration, while the Yankees saw their dynasty collapse because they refused to embrace it.
By 1964, the National League was far more integrated than the rival American League, boasting not only the talented stars of the Cardinals (including such black players as pitcher Bob Gibson, centerfielder Curt Flood, leftfielder Lou Brock, and first baseman Bill White), but many others on its various teams. Just a partial list: Willie Mays and Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants; Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates; Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson of the Cincinnati Reds, and Hank Aaron and Lee Maye of the Milwaukee Braves.
"October 1964" examines how the St. Louis players learned to transcend their ethnic backgrounds; the racial education of Tennessee-born Tim McCarver by Gibson, Flood and the others is one of the key elements of this part of the story.
All the intensity of a four-way fight for the NL crown is conveyed very well in the book, further proving that this is no mere polemic.
The Yankee portion of the story might be read as an extension of Jim Bouton's comments on this team in "Ball Four." As chronicled here, the Yankees emerge as a team on borrowed time, held together by veterans with the savvy and toughness of a perennial winner, but hampered by physical deterioration.
The team's rationalization for all but ignoring black talent is also thoroughly explained.
The narrative of the seven-game World Series itself is exciting, even to those familiar with each game.
Lastly, "October 1964" is a poignant look at a time when baseball had a simpler structure: 10-team leagues with no divisions and a reserve clause that greatly restricted player salaries and movement. There are things many fans would like to have back about that era, and some things we may be better off without.
Rating: 5
Summary: "OCTOBER 1964" by David Halberstam (1995
Comment: "OCTOBER 1964" by David Halberstam (1995)
Sometimes the best sports books are not really sports books, as is the case with David Halberstam's brilliant "October 1964", which tells the story of a changing America through the microcosm of two very different baseball teams.
Halberstam, one of the great living American writers, concentrates on events that occurred during tumultuous times. Halberstam examines the loser of the 1964 World Series, the New York Yankees, who represent the old America, and the winners, the St. Louis Cardinals, who represent the new.
The Yankees were the Republican Party, conservative, white, country club elite, old money, Wall Street, the status quo, featuring Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford. Their style of play was to not take chances, and they only had a couple black players.
The Cardinals mirrored Berkeley rabble rousers, and they played "National League baseball"--aggressive, stealing bases, stretching singles into doubles. Bob Gibson-black, college-educated, a man's man with something to prove, was their undisputed leader. Curt Flood was another thoughtful black athlete who harbored quiet resentment over his treatment by rednecks in Southern minor league towns. Tim McCarver came from a well-to-do white family in Memphis that employed black servants, his only frame of reference, until Gibson asked to take a sip from his coke. McCarver hesitatingly handed Gibby the can, Gibby took a big old honkin' Samuel L. Jackson sip, flashed the kid a giant smile, and handed the can back. McCarver's lesson: Sharing with black's is just like sharing with whites.
Halberstam details the metaphor of these two clubs, in which the Yankees would fall from their lofty perch, only to rise once they changed their ways in accordance with the world around them, mirroring the Reagan Revolution. The Cardinals would win three pennants in the '60s, Gibson ascending to Hall of Fame status, while McCarver grew up to be the modicum of tolerance. Flood became the symbol of the union movement with a fall-on-his-sword lawsuit challenging the reserve clause, opening the door to freedom and riches for numerous players.
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Title: Summer of '49 by David Halberstam ISBN: 0060007818 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 19 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Teammates by David Halberstam ISBN: 140130057X Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: 14 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn ISBN: 0060956348 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam ISBN: 0449908704 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 26 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Glory of Their Times : The Story of Baseball Told By the Men Who Played It by Lawrence S. Ritter ISBN: 0688112730 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 19 March, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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