October 1964
by David Halberstam

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Book Reviews of October 1964

Book Review: October 1964-More than it seems.
Summary: 5 Stars

The year 1964 was a volatile time in the history of our country, and the ballplayers playing for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinal that year reflected much of the country's turmoil. Lou Brock and Curt Flood's incredible drive and determination to show white America that they were badly mistaken about the ability of black ballplayers, and Bob Gibson's incredible anger about what was occurring, are excellent examples of the changing race relations evident in the United States at this time. The New York Yankees slow process of integrating the organization illustrates that progress in this endevor was plodding at best. However, race relations were not the only changing forces at work in baseball at this time.

The modern media was just beginning to emerge during the early 1960's and Halberstam's treatment of how this new media clashed with the midwestern populist views of Roger Maris and was embraced(at times) by the gregarious Mickey Mantle is fascinating. Most of the players, if not all, during this time period did not yet understand that how they performed on the field was now only part of the story. Again, the study of Maris during his quest for 61 homers in 1961 is a great example of the coming storm of the celebrity driven media.

Being a history and education major in college myself, I find one of the best examples that the book has to offer of changing America was the clashing ideologies of the newer players and the older players and managers. Players such as Ray Sadecki, Phil Linz, and Joe Pepitone, were indeed alien to the old guard. Even an item such as Joe Pepitone's bringing a hairdryer in to the clubhouse seemed stunning to the older players. It was a changing world, and as has been quoted in the past, baseball reflected America.

In summation, Halberstam's book is a history book, a psychology book, a sociology book, and, of course, a baseball book. For people who actually remember what was going on in 1964 it is especially poignant, baseball fan or not. But for myself I now have a better understanding of why, as a boy, I once gazed upon the ball cards of Mantle and Boyer and Brock and Ford and held them in awe. They were men who were larger than life at a time when only the tough survived. After reading Halberstam's account of a long ago October my feeling of awe, admiration, and hero worship have increased tenfold.

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