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Summer Of '68: The Season That Changed Baseball—and America—Forever (2012)

by Tim Wendel(Favorite Author)

3.66 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0306820188 (ISBN13: 9780306820182)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Da Capo Press

review 1: I enjoyed this book because I'm a big baseball fan and a Cardinal fan. Wendel's coverage of baseball in this book is very enjoyable. And that's what he should have focused on.The baseball portions of the book are really the heart of the story. I had two complaints about this book. First, Wendel didn't need to talk about football, basketball, the Olympics, or the events of 1968 much at all because it took away from the baseball story. It was as if he was trying to cover as much as he could but couldn't decide how much of each sport/event to put in the book. There's nothing wrong with covering the other sports and events of '68 but he gives them short shrift so you don't end up knowing much about those things at all. They are just tiny side stories in comparison to the baseb... moreall.The other problem I had was the way it was organized and Wendel's writing style. He would jump from one thing to another quite often. One section, for example, included talking about the Cardinals, then the next paragraph was about Bob Gibson seeing MLK Jr. at an airport, the next paragraph was about what they would have talked about if they had talked, and then the final paragraph was about MLK's enjoyment of sports. The book had odd paragraph structures like that from time to time. They just didn't work.Overall, though, if you just want a history of the '68 baseball season, I recommend it.
review 2: I wanted to like this book. I enjoy baseball and the other sports Wendel mentions, and I teach high school history, so I was hoping this would be a book I could recommend to high school boys obsessed with sports, who don't necessarily like to read. The book is at its best when Wendel writes about the Tigers and the Cardinals. When he jumps between football, (something I paid more attention to as a ten year old in 1968) and basketball, then mixes it in with the social and political events of the day the book loses a bit of focus, or its narrative. If you are a Tigers or a Cardinals fan you will likely enjoy the book more than most. If you are looking for insightful historical analysis and a focused story line you may need to look elsewhere. less

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