Baseball at War: World War II and the Fall of the Color Line (American Game Series)

Gilbert, Thomas W.

ISBN 10: 0531113302 ISBN 13: 9780531113301

Publisher: Franklin Watts, 1997

Synopsis

Discusses some of the highlights in the game of professional baseball during the 1940s, including Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak, the series between the Yankees and the Dodgers, the effects of World War II on the game, and career of Jackie Robinson.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up. Gilbert describes, in a very readable style, the rise and fall of teams' fortunes, great pennant races, and the major characters involved along with the controversies they endured. During the war years, retired team members and teenagers supplemented major-league rosters made up of men unfit for military service. After the war, the author explains, players began questioning baseball's reserve clause, and the rival Mexican League's signing of major leaguers helped start the labor strife that still troubles the game. A chapter is devoted to the postwar attitudes toward discrimination and the fall of baseball's color line. The analysis of Branch Rickey's signing of Jackie Robinson is remarkably balanced and questions whether Rickey fought for integration in order to right a wrong or simply to provide the Brooklyn Dodgers with the best possible supply of quality players. In all, Gilbert excels at telling the game's story without dwelling on lengthy play-by-play passages, statistics, and won-lost records. Instead, he focuses on broader themes and important events, such as Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak, Ted Williams's .400 season, and the debate over which player was more valuable. Black-and-white archival photos are sprinkled throughout. While several recent titles, including Gilbert's own Baseball and the Color Line (Watts, 1995), focus on integration of the sport, none offers this much detail about baseball during the 1940s.?Jeffrey A. French, Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 7^-10. Rather than sticking strictly to baseball during World War II, Gilbert covers a variety of topics related to the war years. Opening with a chapter on Joe DiMaggio's winning streak of 1941, he includes sections on shortages of materials and manpower, a chapter on the "subway series" between the Yankees and the Dodgers, and two chapters about Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson's breaking through the boundaries of racial segregation. Gilbert writes in the style of the sports journalist, with language that is occasionally rough, and his analysis mixes freely with the facts for a lively, if opinionated, take on the subject. Readers looking for a pure baseball history or for information on the women's league (which merits only one paragraph) will need to look elsewhere, but baseball fans will enjoy this look back through some of the sport's glory years. Susan Dove Lempke

Edition details

• Publisher: Franklin Watts
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0531113302
• ISBN 13: 9780531113301
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 144