
The Year of the Pitcher
Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age
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Narrated by:
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Leon Nixon
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By:
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Sridhar Pappu
About this listen
The Year of the Pitcher is the story of the remarkable 1968 baseball season, which culminated in one of the greatest World Series contests ever, with the Detroit Tigers coming back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cardinals in Game Seven of the World Series.
In 1968, two remarkable pitchers would dominate the game as well as the broadsheets. One was black, the other white. Bob Gibson, together with the St. Louis Cardinals, embodied an entire generation's hope for integration at a heated moment in American history. Denny McLain, his adversary, was a crass self-promoter who eschewed the team charter and his Detroit Tigers teammates to zip cross-country in his own plane. For one season, the nation watched as these two men and their teams swept their respective league championships to meet at the World Series. Gibson set a major league record that year with a 1.12 ERA. McLain won more than 30 games in 1968, a feat not achieved since 1934 and untouched since. Together, the two have come to stand as iconic symbols, giving the fans The Year of the Pitcher and changing the game.
©2017 Sridhar Pappu (P)2018 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Bad Narration
- By Sally Harrison-Pepper on 08-15-15
By: Jon Pessah
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The Last Hero
- A Life of Henry Aaron
- By: Howard Bryant
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 21 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 34 years since his retirement, Henry Aaron’s reputation has only grown in magnitude: He broke existing records (rbis, total bases, extra-base hits) and set new ones (hitting at least 30 home runs per season 15 times, becoming the first player in history to hammer 500 home runs and three thousand hits). But his influence extends beyond statistics, and at long last here is the first definitive biography of one of baseball’s immortal figures.
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GREAT STORY but blame the producers for misreads
- By Eddie38 on 03-02-22
By: Howard Bryant
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The Boys of Summer
- The Classic Narrative of Growing Up Within Shouting Distance of Ebbets Field, Covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and What's Happened to Everybody Since
- By: Roger Kahn
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a story about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a story by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune. This is the story about what happened to the team when their glory days were behind them.
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Classic book!
- By Christopher Arthur on 11-19-17
By: Roger Kahn
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Infinite Baseball
- Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark
- By: Alva Noe
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In this deeply entertaining book, philosopher and baseball fan Alva Noë explores the many unexpected ways in which baseball is truly a philosophical kind of game. For example, he ponders how observers of baseball are less interested in what happens, than in who is responsible for what happens; every action receives praise or blame. To put it another way, in baseball - as in the law - we decide what happened based on who is responsible for what happened.
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Eye Roll
- By Read With My Ears on 03-28-24
By: Alva Noe
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October 1964
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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David Halberstam, an avid sports writer with an investigative reporter’s tenacity, superbly details the end of the 15-year reign of the New York Yankees in October 1964. That October found the Yankees going head-to-head with the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Series pennant. Expertly weaving the narrative threads of both teams’ seasons, Halberstam brings the major personalities on the field - from switch-hitter Mickey Mantle to pitcher Bob Gibson - to life. Using the teams’ subcultures, Halberstam also analyzes the cultural shifts of the '60s.
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an excellent baseball book
- By Joe H on 12-31-18
By: David Halberstam
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The Greatest Summer in Baseball History
- How the '73 Season Changed Us Forever
- By: John Rosengren
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1973, baseball was in crisis. The first strike in pro sports had soured fans, American League attendance had fallen, and America's team—the Yankees—had lost more games and money than ever. Yet that season, five of the game's greatest figures rescued the national pastime. Hank Aaron riveted the nation with his pursuit of Babe Ruth's landmark home run record in the face of racist threats. George Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees at a bargain basement price and began buying back their faded glory.
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Terrible, Just Terrible.
- By Anonymous User on 06-12-23
By: John Rosengren
What listeners say about The Year of the Pitcher
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- James Gamble
- 07-08-24
Objective and holistic descriptions of the personalities of 1968 baseball year.
I was intrigued with the author’s comprehensive approach to the political content and personal struggles experienced by Jackie Robinson represented by the 1968 baseball season. Well done- unexpected but entirely relevant.
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- Kevin Revell
- 05-04-20
The Year of the Pitcher is a Moving Narrative
What I absolutely love about this book is that it goes beyond baseball data. It is a wonderful storyline about the amazing pitchers and players who played this game in the late 60s and early 70s. Most of the focus was on the 1968 season and the 1968 World Series.These guys were clearly not one dimensional figures. And all of this great baseball playing was taken place during a very turbulent time in our country’s history. It allowed me to put myself in the shoes of those who played this game. I got a glimpse of the ups and downs of these players and their day. I felt an attachment to them and their world. This book would also be appreciated by those who are not baseball fans. The writer is a wonderful storyteller.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-06-19
Wonderful
Heard names long in the past, like Alvin Dark. As a baseball fan, I loved this book. As a history major in college I found it very informative. As a youngster I used to sit in first four rows of the right field grandstand at Forbes Field because it was the best place to watch Clemente play. Go Pirates. Go Rockies.
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1 person found this helpful
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- J
- 05-20-19
Not what I expected
This book, in my opinion, is more about the politics and the culture of the sixties than it is about baseball. It delves deeply into race relations, political campaigns and the transition from the 50's to the 60's. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I would have enjoyed more baseball. And, while the sixties were an unsettling period in American history, in my view this book is not the most balanced look at the decade. In sum, there are some great parts to the book, but overall I found it a bit of a downer and overly focused on the negatives.
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2 people found this helpful
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- rhaze64
- 03-10-24
not about baseball
just another book about race, poor guys just having to play ball. why name it year of pitcher?
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- Paul
- 01-25-19
Misleading Title
The book is more focused on race relations in sports than it is on the 1968 MLB season. An inordinate amount of time is spent on Jackie Robinson's activism after his retirement from playing. The actual baseball is more of a secondary story. The retelling of the World Series and the story of Johnny Sain are the most compelling parts of the book focused on baseball. In the epilogue, the narrator claims to debunk the myth of that the '68 healed the City of Detroit. The myth doesn't exist - most of the epilogue could have been written by Mr. Obvious.
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5 people found this helpful