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October 1964 [Paperback]

David Halberstam
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 21.00
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Book Description

April 11 1995
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
THE BEST SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR
"October 1964 should be a hit with old-time baseball fans, who'll relish the opportunity to relive that year's to-die-for World Series, when the dynastic but aging New York Yankees squared off against the upstart St. Louis Cardinals. It should be a hit with younger students of the game, who'll eat up the vivid portrayals of legends like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris of the Yankees and Bob Gibson and Lou Brock of the Cardinals. Most of all, however, David Halberstam's new book should be a hit with anyone interested in understanding the important interplay between sports and society."
--The Boston Globe
"Compelling...1964 is a chronicle of the end of a great dynasty and of a game, like the country, on the cusp of enormous change."
--Newsweek
"Halberstam's latest gives us the feeling of actually being there--in another time, in the locker rooms and in the minds of baseball legends. His time and effort researching the book result in a fluency with his topic and a fluidity of writing that make the reading almost effortless....Absorbing."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"Wonderful...Memorable...Halberstam describes the final game of the 1964 series accurately and so dramatically, I almost thought I had forgotten the ending."
--The Washington Post Book World
"Superb reporting...Incisive analysis...You know from the start that Halberstam is going to focus on a large human canvas...One of the many joys of this book is the humanity with which Halberstam explores the characters as well as the talents of the players, coaches and managers. These are not demigods of summer but flawed, believable human beings who on occasion can rise to peaks of heroism."
--Chicago Sun-Times

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Heroes have a habit of growing larger over time, as do the arenas in which they excelled. The 1964 World Series between the Yankees and Cardinals was coated in myth from the get-go. The Yankees represented the establishment: white, powerful, and seemingly invincible. The victorious Cards, on the other hand, were baseball's rebellious future: angry and defiant, black, and challenging. Their seven-game barnburner, played out against a backdrop of an America emerging from the Kennedy assassination, escalating the war in Vietnam, and struggling with civil rights, marked a turning point--neither the nation, nor baseball, would ever be quite so innocent again. Halberstam, one of the great reporters of the '60s, looks back in this marvelous and spirited elegy to the era, the game, and players such as Mantle, Maris, Ford, Gibson, Brock, and Flood with a clear eye in search of the truth that time has blurred into legend. His confident prose, diligent reporting, and deft analysis make it clear how much more interesting--and forceful--the truth can be.

From Library Journal

This follow-up to the best-selling Summer of '49 assesses the Yankee-Cardinal World Series of 1964.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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The Yankees arrived at spring training as confident as ever. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best baseball books ever written July 8 2004
Format:Paperback
David Halberstam is one of my all-time favorite writers, and this is one of his best books. The book deals with the 1964 World Series and offers a whole new insight to the classic series between the Cardinals and Yankees.

It's worth reading just for the stories about Bob Gibson, but there's so much more to the story. One of the biggest things the Cards had going for them was how well the team handled integration. This was only 17 years after Jackie Robinson broke in with the Dodgers and there were a few teams that had only integrated in the past few years. Halberstam says the National League integrated much more quickly and that was a big reason for the difference in the style of play between the two leagues.

He also shows how well the Cardinals dealt with the issue and how poorly the Yankees accomplished integrating their team. As a result, the Cards had a much closer team than the Yankees.

If you enjoy this book, you should check out Halberstam's other book about baseball (The Summer of '49). If you like these and are a basketball fan I would also recommend The Breaks of the Game (a look at one season for the Portland Trailblazers). If you enjoy any of these books and are interested in the media, be sure to check out The Powers That Be. If you like history, The Best and the Brightest is probably the best book ever written about Vietnam and the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and The Children is an outstanding book about the fight to integrate the south during the 1960's.

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5.0 out of 5 stars "OCTOBER 1964" by David Halberstam (1995 Feb 23 2004
Format:Hardcover
"OCTOBER 1964" by David Halberstam (1995)

Sometimes the best sports books are not really sports books, as is the case with David Halberstam's brilliant "October 1964", which tells the story of a changing America through the microcosm of two very different baseball teams.
Halberstam, one of the great living American writers, concentrates on events that occurred during tumultuous times. Halberstam examines the loser of the 1964 World Series, the New York Yankees, who represent the old America, and the winners, the St. Louis Cardinals, who represent the new.
The Yankees were the Republican Party, conservative, white, country club elite, old money, Wall Street, the status quo, featuring Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford. Their style of play was to not take chances, and they only had a couple black players.
The Cardinals mirrored Berkeley rabble rousers, and they played "National League baseball"--aggressive, stealing bases, stretching singles into doubles. Bob Gibson-black, college-educated, a man's man with something to prove, was their undisputed leader. Curt Flood was another thoughtful black athlete who harbored quiet resentment over his treatment by rednecks in Southern minor league towns. Tim McCarver came from a well-to-do white family in Memphis that employed black servants, his only frame of reference, until Gibson asked to take a sip from his coke. McCarver hesitatingly handed Gibby the can, Gibby took a big old honkin' Samuel L. Jackson sip, flashed the kid a giant smile, and handed the can back. McCarver's lesson: Sharing with black's is just like sharing with whites.
Halberstam details the metaphor of these two clubs, in which the Yankees would fall from their lofty perch, only to rise once they changed their ways in accordance with the world around them, mirroring the Reagan Revolution. The Cardinals would win three pennants in the '60s, Gibson ascending to Hall of Fame status, while McCarver grew up to be the modicum of tolerance. Flood became the symbol of the union movement with a fall-on-his-sword lawsuit challenging the reserve clause, opening the door to freedom and riches for numerous players.

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Format:Paperback
This book started my fascination with 50's and 60's era of baseball. Halberstam does an excellent job covering the hundreds of people that made up the game during that time period. After reading this book, I had to go out and buy several biographies of some players that seemed so very interesting to me. Since I am a baseball fan that was born in 83 I wasn't around to experience those players, I just have to read about them.
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Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars A Better Writer than Reporter
Halberstam as always writes beautifully here, but as in some of his other sports books the minor factual errors he makes leave one wondering what else hasn't adequately been... Read more
Published on Nov 29 2003
4.0 out of 5 stars Another Halberstam home run...
Yes, this is another lovely baseball book from David Halberstam. While not as sweeping and poetic as 'Summer of 49', it is more...oh I don't know..."hard-boiled"? Read more
Published on Nov 4 2003 by M J Heilbron Jr.
4.0 out of 5 stars Baseball's relevance to civil rights struggle
David Halberstam uses the story of the 1964 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees to explain the dynamics of the African-American struggle for civil... Read more
Published on Sep 28 2003 by DBW
3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but it could have been much better.
Mr. Halberstam is a very talented writer, who has achieved the status of being considered one of the best. Read more
Published on Sep 27 2003
4.0 out of 5 stars Giants on the Earth in those days. And Cardinals.
In the ESPN.com vernacular of the present day, "October 1964" has recently been debunked (but lovingly) by columnist/author Rob Neyer. Read more
Published on Aug 17 2003 by Jason A. Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Good Halberstam Book
Another good book by author David Halberstam and I enjoyed it more than "The Summer Of '49" because of its more indepth look at the racial tones of the times - ever start... Read more
Published on Jun 19 2003 by Jeffrey C. Bullock
4.0 out of 5 stars Yo! Gi!
Despite the 15-year gap between the two stories, it seems like OCTOBER 1964 picks up right where SUMMER OF '49 leaves off. Read more
Published on Mar 12 2003 by Brian Almquist
4.0 out of 5 stars Keep Baseball Alive, Even if Players Kill It
What to do with the rest of the summer of the Boys of Summer take their ball and go home? Read this book... Read more
Published on Aug 18 2002 by Ms. Tracy L. Winchell
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
If you are a baseball junkie, this is a captivating, must have book to add to your collection.
Published on May 31 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Baseball Book I Have Ever Read!
I thought I was a knowledgeable baseball fan until I read this book. The depth and insight that the author provides is beyond comprehension. Read more
Published on May 10 2002 by Michael A. Newman
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