This Side of Cooperstown
An Oral History of Major League Baseball in the 1950s
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, is the ultimate honor for any major leaguer. This rousing, you-are-there history tells the story of seventeen legendary players who came up just short of Cooperstown: Virgil Trucks, Gene Woodling, Carl Erskine, Frank Thomas, and others. Collectively, the humorous, engaging, behind-the-scenes stories also tell the tale of baseball in the 1950s: a game performed on fields of grass and dirt, divided by segregation, played by men who took trains from city to city and held off-season jobs.
The New YorkTimes applauded this oral history as "great fun," and sportscaster Mel Allen praised it as "a must-read for anyone who wants to know where today's game came from and what it can become once again." Former Commissioner of Baseball Fay Vincent noted that "Oral historians like Moffi do us the service of preserving what these men have to say about their baseball lives. These are players who gave me much enjoyment and so did this fine book. You will agree."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 1950s did much to shape baseball as it is played today: it changed from a day game to a night game, from train to jet, from radio to TV and from East Coast to West Coast. In this history, Moffi (coauthor, Crossing the Line) reports on interviews with 17 of the players who weathered the transition: not the Williamses, Mantles or Mayses but major leaguers who might be called near-great, from pitchers Mel Parnell and Virgil Trucks, both of whom pitched no-hitters and ended with ERAs under 4.0, to sluggers such as Roy Sievers, who hit more than 300 home runs, and exceptional fielders such as shortstop Marty Marion, who played on three World Series-winning teams. To a man they reject the romantic notion that they played only for love of the game and were indifferent to money. Any fan will enjoy this title as part of the history of the game, and it should particularly delight the over-50 crowd. Photos.
