Ricci G. (goldie61) reviewed Talkin' Baseball: An Oral History of Baseball in the 1970s on + 39 more book reviews
Being a teen in the 70's, I followed baseball much more closely than ever before, especially 71-75. When girls entered my world, reading this great recap helped remind me what a great time this was and filled in some of the forgotten details. Baseball fans will enjoy this well written book. The sport was really starting to change in the 70's with the introduction of the designated hitter and free agency. Maybe baseball wasn't as "pure" as the 50's and 60's, but time marches on and Phil Pepe captures all the important stories that impacted the game during these 10 years.
Author Pepe dug deep to get comments and insight from key players, managers and even the Commissioner of Baseball (Bowie Kuehn) to put all the changes in perspective. The detail is significant but one could argue that 390 pages for ten years doesn't go deep enough. As a recap of the decade, I got a good flavor of what transpired in each of these years, from key events, pennant races and good coverage of the World Series.
As a New York based writer, Pepe provides deep coverage of the Yankees during this time, as Steinbrenner took over the reins and set about to make the team relevant again. The coverage of the passing of Thurman Munson was especially good, and reminded me just how great he was as a ballplayer and teammate. All he was missing was another 3-4 years of his average production and he would be tough to keep out of the Hall.
Strongly recommended to baseball fans. If you are younger than 40, this book captures the spirit of the game and will lead you to go deeper into the sub-plots of the 70's like:
Free agency (Curt Flood's book)
The Big Red Machine (2-3 books on this including Howsham's book)
The Yankee's (consider "The Bronx Zoo" among many others written about this team)
The Pirates (books on the team and 2-3 books that focus on Roberto Clemente).
If older than 40, you caught at least part of this great decade and will find reliving this time to be an excellent trip down memory lane.
Author Pepe dug deep to get comments and insight from key players, managers and even the Commissioner of Baseball (Bowie Kuehn) to put all the changes in perspective. The detail is significant but one could argue that 390 pages for ten years doesn't go deep enough. As a recap of the decade, I got a good flavor of what transpired in each of these years, from key events, pennant races and good coverage of the World Series.
As a New York based writer, Pepe provides deep coverage of the Yankees during this time, as Steinbrenner took over the reins and set about to make the team relevant again. The coverage of the passing of Thurman Munson was especially good, and reminded me just how great he was as a ballplayer and teammate. All he was missing was another 3-4 years of his average production and he would be tough to keep out of the Hall.
Strongly recommended to baseball fans. If you are younger than 40, this book captures the spirit of the game and will lead you to go deeper into the sub-plots of the 70's like:
Free agency (Curt Flood's book)
The Big Red Machine (2-3 books on this including Howsham's book)
The Yankee's (consider "The Bronx Zoo" among many others written about this team)
The Pirates (books on the team and 2-3 books that focus on Roberto Clemente).
If older than 40, you caught at least part of this great decade and will find reliving this time to be an excellent trip down memory lane.
