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2005 Fall Baseball Roundup

Baseball Books

2005 Fall Baseball Roundup

Who knows if, in 50 years time, authors will wax poetic about the winner of this year's World Series as they have about past victors? The Brooklyn Dodgers, for example, have two titles --- from very different sources --- to mark the 50th anniversary of the only championship for the legendary "Bums" while they played in the fabled borough of Flatbush.


In PRAYING FOR GIL HODGES: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Thomas Oliphant, the Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for the Boston Globe, shares a very poignant and personal perspective about what their long-delayed success meant to him and his parents. From 1947-56, the Dodgers faced the dreaded New York Yankees six times in the Fall Classic, losing to the Bronx Bombers in all but one. Oliphant fondly recalls that special day in that watershed year, when his father gave him an out from attending school to stay home to watch the game on TV. The tears of joy shed between a nine-year-old Oliphant and his parents are touching, especially since his father, a freelance writer, was often in poor health following his return from World War II.

The author recreates the pitch-by-pitch tension of the final showdown, in which Dodger pitcher Johnny Podres shut down the mighty Yankee attack and Sandy Amoros made one of the great catches in World Series history.

Oliphant also touches on the deeper meaning of the team for Brooklyn, a conglomeration of races often at odds with each other, but brought together for a few moments of shared pride. Sadly, the Dodgers were on the verge of abandoning the city for the sunny shores of the West Coast, an event that still rankles some older fans to this day.


In BROOKLYN REMEMBERED: The 1955 Days of the Dodgers, veteran sportswriter Maury Allen takes a more traditional look at the Dodgers, which became a subgenre of baseball literature beginning with Roger Kahn's watershed account of THE BOYS OF SUMMER.

Allen's folksy charm reminds readers that the team was just an extension of its quirky environs. "Brooklyn. It had a ring, uniqueness, a coda, a je ne sais qua that no other place had. You'd meet a guy from Brooklyn in a London pub and smile. Run across a Parisian charmer in a Paris café and everything got easier when the Brooklyn ID was revealed. Why, why, why? No real answers. That's just the way it was."

Allen also tracked down the surviving members of the Bums, including Podres, to discuss that heady season, and what it meant to them, their teammates, and the neighbors. You see, in those days, many of the athletes actually lived among the "regular people." To a man, they reveled in the opportunity to wipe the smirk of the pusses of Yankee fans and brought an end to the optimistic battle cry of the Dodgers' disappointed yet optimistic fans --- "Wait 'til next year!"


The World Series is the delineation between the past and present season, and marks a time of coming and going for many players.

More than 200 rookies made their Major League debut in 2005. Regardless of whether they've been labeled as a "can't miss star of the future" or just a body filling a roster spot, that first game is a memory that will last a lifetime. Such is the premise behind Josh Lewin's YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST: Ballplayers Recall Their Big League Debuts.

Lewin, an announcer for FOX Sports's "Saturday Game of the Week" and the Texas Rangers, has collected the recollections of 120 players, combining them with box scores of their first appearance. Among those he interviewed are such past and present stars as Frank Robinson, Reggie Jackson, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey Jr., Dontrelle Willis, Alex Rodriguez, and Cal Ripken Jr. He also includes "lesser" lights, whose memories will be just as sweet, if not more so, given their relative rungs in the game's hierarchy.

Not everyone begins his career auspiciously; Clemens, for example, got bombed in his first outing more than 20 years ago. But poor showings don't negate that these men are part of the elite fraternity of major leaguers.


On the flip side, it's too early to tell how many will have played in their final game in 2005. John Nogowski looks at the final performances of some of the biggest stars to don cleats in LAST TIME OUT: Big League Farewells of Baseball's Greatest. Included are 23 Hall of Famers, one soon-to-be inductee, and one --- Pete Rose --- who probably won't get into Cooperstown without paying the admission.

Most athletic retirements are tinged with sadness, especially for those who have been around the game for a long time. After years of production, the mind is willing but the flesh no longer can accommodate. Most depart with a whimper, not a bang. Jackie Robinson struck out to end the final game of the 1956 World Series for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Lou Gehrig flied out, even as the fatal disease that would bear his name was beginning to take its toll. Babe Ruth, the mighty Bambino, meekly grounded out in his finale.

A few lucky ones end on a high note, which just enhances their legendary status. Roberto Clemente doubled for his 3,000th hit; a few months later he died in a plane crash bringing humanitarian aid to Nicaragua in 1973. Ted Williams homered in his final at bat, an event that John Updike turned into required reading for sportswriters and fans, turning up in just about every sports anthology since he wrote it in 1960.


Fans tend to get sad as October draws to a close. They know it will be a cold, dark winter until the next season rolls around. Perhaps these books will help drive away the chill as they wait for the reunion of spring training.


   --- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan