Black and Blue
Sandy Koufax, the Robinson Boys, and the World Series That Stunned America
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The author of The Long Ball revisits the drama of the 1966 World Series in which the underdog Baltimore Orioles take on the favored Los Angeles Dodgers.
Baltimore 1966. Suffering through a summer of heated racial animosity, baseball fans look to the Orioles to bring new respect to their once-great city. Their young team of no-name kids and promising prospects may be strengthened by the recent addition of veteran slugger Frank Robinson—but the former National League MVP is rumored to be bad news, washed up, and unreliable.
To squash these rumors, Robby must play harder than ever—which he does by delivering a Triple Crown performance. Aided by a memorable cast of characters—the gentlemanly southerner Brooks Robinson, the prankster Moe Drabowsky, unknown pitchers like Jim Palmer and Dave McNally, and a gargantuan yet nimble fielder called "Boog"—Frank Robinson brings his new team to its first World Series. But before they take it all, the Orioles must unseat the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
Los Angeles seems otherworldly, a sunny land of surfers and movie stars. Comfortably dwelling in this higher plane is pitching ace Sandy Koufax, arguably the greatest lefthander in baseball history, behind whom the Dodgers have won two of the previous three World Series. Though battling agonizing arthritis throughout the season, the godlike Koufax has nonetheless persevered to win twenty-seven games in 1966, a personal best. Few outside Baltimore give the Orioles more than a fighting chance against such series veterans as Koufax, Don Drysdale, Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, and the rest. Experts are betting that the Dodgers can sweep it in four. What transpires instead astonishes the nation . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
There's something about a good baseball yarn that brings out a writer's childlike enthusiasm; in this case, Adelman's gusto makes this account of the legendary 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox at once a joy and a bit of a pain to read. Adelman's retelling of one of baseball's greatest showdowns goes in so many different directions that the reader is sometimes hard put to relax and enjoy it; skipping between teams, players and games with the ferocity of a suicide squeeze, Adelman jumps from Casey Stengel to Steve Garvey with a story about a missed steal sign thrown by Don Zimmer as a segue. He tosses in bits about players' personal lives, too--Johnny Bench's rocky marriage to an Ultra Brite model; Mickey Mantle's nightmares; Luis Tiant's longing for his family in Cuba--for added color. And he still manages to depict in gripping detail the split-second decisions of legends like Pete Rose, Sparky Anderson, the elder Bonds and Griffey, Billy Martin, Johnny Bench and Yaz--uncovering some great inside stories and little-known anecdotes along the way. Also, 1975 was the year free agency came to baseball, when Catfish Hunter challenged the indentured servitude practiced by the owners and won, later becoming the game's first free agent and signing with (who else?) the Yankees. It signaled the end of the era of players being contractually bound to one team and ushered in the high-priced bidding wars that are now the hallmark of the sport. While Adelman doesn't explore the advent of free agency nearly as much as he could, choosing instead to analyze pitching decisions and the positioning of the second baseman on a hopper up the middle, he's still written a thoroughly enjoyable baseball book. 16 pages b&w photos
