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by: David Halberstam
List Price: $14.95Amazon.com's Price: $10.17 You Save: $4.78 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780060884260
ISBN: 0060884266
Label: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: May 01, 2006
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Release Date: May 09, 2006
Sales Rank: 106616
Studio: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
With incredible skill, passion, and insight, Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Halberstam returns us to a glorious time when the dreams of a now almost forgotten America rested on the crack of a bat.
The year was 1949, and a war-weary nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League, and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions—one that would be decided in an explosive head-to-head confrontation on the last day of the season.
Amazon.com:
With the airwaves saturated with so much sporting choice, it's hard to imagine how, not that long ago, baseball so completely dominated the landscape and captured imaginations. Given the 1949 season that veteran journalist David Halberstam meticulously recreates, maybe it's not so hard after all. It was a season of great public and personal drama for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, with the conflict finally resolving itself in a Yankee pennant following a head-to-head showdown on the final day of the season. Each team was led by a star of the highest magnitude: Joe DiMaggio spurred the Yankees despite missing half the season with a foot injury; Ted Williams virtually carried the Sox on his back, missing an unprecedented third Triple Crown by mere decimal points on his batting average. Halberstam focuses much of his narrative on the trials of these two individual sporting giants, adding fine supporting performances by Yogi Berra, Ellis Kinder, Dom DiMaggio, even restaurateur Toots Shoor. Both on and off the field, Halberstam beautifully captures the ethos of a more innocent game that no longer exists, played by heroes far more driven by their pride than by their salaries.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Simply put, A Great Author at his Best!!!
The catalog of work by David Halberstam is outstanding in so many different aspects. It would seem that he is at his best when he writes about sports. While I can recommend any of his works, Summer of 49 is probably the best! Halberstam does a great job of not only painting an era but painting the giants who played in them. Williams and DiMaggio are given special care and shown to be complex and interesting characters in this drama, but then so are the role players like Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr. ... Read More
Rating: - Baseball. Yankees vs. Red Sox. Halberstam. It's the Triple Crown.
It would be be impossible to put the following three things together -- baseball, Yankees vs. Red Sox and David Halberstam -- and not have the result be a masterpiece. I've been a Yankee fan since I can first remember watching baseball in the mid-70s and lived for baseball and the Yankees.
I still remember attending my first World Series game in 1978 (Game 3) at Yankee Stadium after the memorable 1978 battle with the Sox. For me, the heroes were different that those of Halberstam, the ... Read More
Rating: - Excellently Done
"Summer of `49" focuses on the rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees as they fought for first place during the Summer of 1949. This was before the days of the wild card and first place meant a trip to the playoffs while second place meant a trip home. The two teams fought for first place all season long and (perhaps fittingly) it all came down to the last game of the season.
"Summer of `49" is an excellent book about baseball, the men that played it, the men who ran it, the ... Read More
Rating: - A pleasant distraction.
In the foreward, Halberstam discussed how he was writing and researching this book in the midst of lecture tours to discuss weighty foreign policy issues before audiences comprised of very serious people. I got the sense that this book was a pleasurable distraction for him as it allowed him to focus on a topic related to a far simpler time and place in our history.
I think he's laid it out for the prospective reader with that comment. It's a pleasant distraction for one interested in baseball ... Read More
Rating:  - Personality above all
I have read better accounts of dramatic innings, games, and seasons than are found here. However, Halberstam's reporting brings to life many players who were just names to me. Jerry Coleman, Tommy Henrich, Bobby Doerr, Mel Parnell, and others played before my time, and it's clear that Halberstam spent many hours with them and grew to understand them as human beings, and not just as ballplayers.
This is not the right book for a statistics buff, I agree -- but it does bring back a very different ... Read More
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