The era : 1947-1957, when the Yankees, the New York Giants, and the Brooklyn Dodgers ruled the world /

Anything Kahn writes about baseball is interesting: The Boys of Summer (1972) was so good that it belongs in baseball's desert-island library. So to say that The Era falls short of that earlier triumph is only to say that this book is Carl Furillo, not Duke Snider. Kahn's subject is the span of 11 years (1947 to 1957) during which, with the exception of 1948, New York City had at least one team in the World Series. It is the era of Dimaggio's departure and the arrivals of Mantle, Mays, Stengel, and, above all, Jackie Robinson. The book is rich in anecdotes, and Kahn has a wonderful memory for the strange verbal exchanges that often pass for conversations when some combination of ballplayer, owner, and sports writer get together. The author is somewhat self-indulgent: his politics are too obtrusive, and his sprawling subject finally eludes his efforts to impose structure. He is also parochial: fans west of St. Louis are likely to believe that "the era" begins just as The Era ends. Still, who really wants to quibble? This book will afford much pleasure, both for its writing and the memories it evokes. All levels. R. Browning; Kenyon College

Roger Kahn writing on the great New York baseball teams of the 1940s and 1950s: it would be easy to dismiss such a book as a rehash of Kahn's classic Boys of Summer (1972). Easy but wrong. Kahn brings to the familiar story of the Giants, Yankees, and Dodgers not only an eyewitness perspective--he was a New York beat reporter during the period for both the Yanks and Dodgers--but also a willingness to dig beneath the surface, look beyond the legends. We see, for example, a Joe DiMaggio in the twilight of his career very different from his idealized image: feuding with Casey Stengel, cavorting with showgirls, and being accused by Mickey Mantle of indirectly causing the 1951 knee injury that hampered the Mick throughout his career. (Joltin' Joe does have the best line in the book: when asked by a New York Times reporter to describe the experience of taking a shower with Marilyn Monroe, Joe says simply, "Louie, you shoulda been there.") If Kahn's game-by-game accounts of the World Series from 1947 through 1957 drag a little--this is very familiar territory, after all--he more than makes up for it with fresh takes on the era's key figures: Jackie Robinson, of course, and the decade's holy trinity, Mays, Mantle, and Snider; managers Durocher and Stengel; and the front-office wheeler dealers, good guys Branch Rickey and Larry MacPhail and villains Horace Stoneham and Walter O'Malley, who engineered the defection in 1958 of the Giants and Dodgers to California. The best stories always bear retelling, and Kahn is the right man to retell the story of baseball's greatest decade. DiMaggio had it right: you shoulda been there. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1993)0395561558Bill Ott

Kahn again returns to an era he categorically states is ``the greatest'' in baseball history. Central to his description are the three New York clubs and the spirited rivalries they produced. As in The Boys of Summer ( LJ 2/15/72) and Games We Used To Play ( LJ 12/91), he engagingly captures the flavor of the times by bringing to the fore the defining traits and relationships that added human dimension to the sport. His unique style is particularly evident in accounts of Jackie Robinson's entry into the major leagues, the events surrounding the shooting of Eddie Waitkus by an obsessed fan, and the migration of the Dodgers and Giants to California. On the whole, this is another fresh perspective on the game's golden age. For sports collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/93.-- William H. Hoffman, Ft. Myers-Lee Cty. P.L., Fla. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

An agreeably digressive and anecdotal trip, with a perceptive guide, down a remarkable span in baseball's memory lane. Drawing on experiences gained as a young sportswriter during the post-WW II period he resurrects here, Kahn (Games We Used to Play, The Boys of Summer, etc.) hits the high and low points of nearly a dozen seasons. The author's golden age began with Jackie Robinson's arrival as the first black to play in the major leagues and ended with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants heading west to California, momentarily making the Yankees the only game in town. In between, the Big Apple's three clubs dominated the national pastime, winning nine out of eleven World Series (as often as not, from one another). During these years, moreover, triborough baseball had an almost perfectly marvelous cast of characters- -including Yogi Berra, Leo Durocher, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Walter O'Malley, Pee Wee Reese, Branch Rickey, Red Smith, Duke Snider, and Casey Stengel. In telling detail, Kahn recalls the notable achievements of lesser lights who frequently outdid their superstar teammates in championship contests. Cases in point range from Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning homer through Don Larsen's perfect game and the ninth-inning double by Cooky Lavagetto that broke up a no-hit bid by another Bronx Bomber (Bill Bevens). The author also sets the record straight on what the storied Joe DiMaggio was like off the field; the identity of the player who was Brooklyn's first choice to break baseball's color barrier; Larry MacPhail's alcohol-accelerated retirement; and the impact of the emerging medium of TV on ballpark attendance. While Kahn covers a lot of well-trampled ground here, he does so with an elegant authority that--without false sentiment or excessive nostalgia--puts certain of the diamond game's good old days in clear and compelling perspective. (Photographs--not seen)