Summer of '49

David Halberstam

The Teammates: A Portrait of Friendship

More than 6 years after his death David Halberstam remains one of this country's most respected journalists and revered authorities on American life and history in the years since WWII. A Pulitzer Prize-winner for his ground-breaking reporting on the Vietnam War, Halberstam wrote more than 20 books, almost all of them bestsellers. His work has stood the test of time and has become the standard by which all journalists measure themselves. The Teammates is the profoundly moving story of four great baseball players who have made the passage from sports icons--when they were young and seemingly indestructible--to men dealing with the vulnerabilities of growing older. At the core of the book is the friendship of these four very different men--Boston Red Sox teammates Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams--who remained close for more than sixty years. The book starts out in early October 2001, when Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky begin a 1,300-mile trip by car to visit their beloved friend Ted Williams, whom they know is dying. Bobby Doerr, the fourth member of this close group--"my guys," Williams used to call them--is unable to join them.This is a book--filled ...

Jim Bouton

Ball Four

A book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact it is by no means a sports book" --David Halberstam ""Ball Four" is a people book, not just a baseball book." --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "The New York Times" When "Ball Four" was first published in 1970, it hit the sports world like a lightning bolt. Commissioners, executives, players and sportswriters were thrown into a state of shock. Stunned. Scandalized. The controversy was front-page news. Sportswriters called Bouton a Judas, a Benedict Arnold and a "social leper." Commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force the author to sign a statement saying that the book wasn't true. One team actually burned a copy of "Ball Four" in protest.And Bouton is still not invited to Oldtimers' Day at Yankee Stadium. Fans, however, loved "Ball Four" and serious critics called it an important document. It was also very popular among people who didn't ordinarily follow baseball, because "Ball Four" is not strictly a book about baseball, but one about people who happen to be baseball players. And it's hilariously funny. For the twentieth-anniversary edition of this historic book, Bouton has written a new epilogue, detailing his career as an inventor, ...

Allen Bodner

When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport

Allen Bodner is an attorney whose interest in boxing stems from his father, who was an amateur boxer in the 1920s and a professional manager in the 1930s and 1940s.