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Stars And Strikes: Baseball And America In The Bicentennial Summer Of ‘76 (2014)

by Dan Epstein(Favorite Author)

4.16 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1250034388 (ISBN13: 9781250034380)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Thomas Dunne Books

review 1: I enjoyed the book for a number of reasons. First, as a baseball fan, I love almost any book about baseball. Secondly, I love reading about history. This book combines both, specifically the 1976 baseball season and America's Bicentennial celebration.Throughout this book, the reader will follow the baseball season, with all of the changes, owner & player fighting, cities fighting in court for a baseball team, and oh yeah, pennant races. It is wrapped around numerous preparations and celebrations for America's Birthday, along with discussing the presidential campaigns leading to the election of President Jimmy Carter. However, as this is primarily a baseball book, that is what the reader will be reading about.Described in these pages are a number of things that happened dur... moreing the 1976 season permanently changed the landscape of baseball. They included: - The fight by owners to keep free agency from happening - The fight by Seattle to secure a team - The potential loss of the Giants to Toronto - How the use of the DH was determined - How the owners fought amongst themselves and Commissioner Bowie KuhnAlso described in these pages are some historical happenings during 1976. These include: - The Republican Primary battle between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan - The preparation across the country for the Bicentennial Celebration - How tourism was affected by social and health issues - How the nation was trying to recover from the Vietnam War and issues that separated us through celebrating America's Birthday.A baseball fan will enjoy this well written book. (I liked that each chapter was a song title.) A history fan should also enjoy this book about the year of 1976 and how the country and America's Pastime were shaped by a number of events that occurred. A fan of both baseball and history will be especially pleased to read this book as both interests are covered in its pages. It's an interesting study of how sports can affect our society, as well as how society can affect sports. I would certainly recommend reading this book.
review 2: 1976 was the year I started paying attention to baseball. I lived in Michigan, and there was The Bird: Mark Fidrych, who made the game of baseball entertaining to those that thought the game was boring. It was in the golden time of the Big Red Machine, and I remember watching Reds games with my great aunt Margie when we visited her in Ohio. The names of the players come alive in 1975 technicolor with Topps baseball card images floating before my eyes. This was also the year that free agency became a reality, changing the face of the game in a very real way. Epstein walks the reader through a month-by-month breakdown of the 76 baseball season with plenty of cultural references thrown in for good measure. The only slow parts are his periodic straying into a play-by-play of certain games now and then. less

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