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Summer of '49

By: David Halberstam
Narrated by: Jamie Renell
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Publisher's summary

David Halberstam's classic chronicle of baseball's most magnificent season, as seen through the battle royal between Joe DiMaggio's Yankees and Ted Williams's Red Sox for the hearts of a nation.

The year was 1949, and a war-wearied nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions—one that would be decided in an explosive head-to-head confrontation on the last day of the season.

With incredible skill, passion and insight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam returns us to that miraculous summer—and to a glorious time when the dreams of a now almost forgotten America rested on the crack of a bat.

©1989 David Halberstam (P)2022 Tantor
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What listeners say about Summer of '49

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Baseball Nostalgia at its best

Halberstam is great at weaving the biographies of the great and the forgotten players of the drama as he narrates the story of the great penman race of 1949. I think all the characters are gone now, including Halberstam. You will miss them. I also recommend Halberstam’s October 1964, about the 1964 season and World Series. Similar themes and just as good.

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Halberstam’s writing is brilliant

Beautifully written and clearly well researched, Summer of 49 is a must for any baseball fan. The ball players, from Ted Williams to Joe DiMaggio are larger the life.

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Well Done

An enjoyable listening experience, providing cultural flavor of the time surrounding Yankees/Red Sox baseball and its cast of characters, recommended.

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Excellent

Being a baseball fan I found it hard to put the book down. The authors account of players if the mid to late 40s and early 50s was engrossing.

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Snooze-a-Rama

Halberstam is trying to imitate James Michener. Lots of exposition but very little having to do with 1949. Pathetic

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