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General Baseball: February 2012

Book Review: Summer Of '68

Posted on February 6, 2012 at 11:14 PM
If Bryan Adams had decided to do a prequel to his big hit, he might have started it out something like this:

There was turmoil in the cities
The country had a lot of hate
But man, there was some great pitching
Was the summer of '68.

Coming in April, Tim Wendel examines that time period in baseball and American history with his aptly-titled book, Summer of '68.  A couple of years ago, I reviewed Wendel's book High Heat and found it a very enjoyable look at the flame throwers of the past and present.  Wendel doesn't disappoint in Summer of '68, either, especially if you are a fan of the pitching side of the game.  (Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of the book in the mail.  While the best books are free books, that didn't have any bearing on my opinion of this work.)

While baseball is obviously the focus of this book, the tumultuous time in American history is examined as well.  Wendel shows how the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy impacted the game of baseball and how baseball was fairly incompetent when it came to dealing with those tragedies.  He looks at what was going on with the Olympics, with the NFL and the riots in Chicago as well as what was going on in the diamond.  Some of that seems a little out of place--most of those threads don't get wrapped up until the very last chapter, so you start to wonder why they were put in the book.  When they resolve, though, you can see that it gives a lot of context to what was an amazing season.

As a Cardinal fan, of course I was aware that St. Louis and Detroit met up in the '68 World Series, with the Tigers taking it over Bob Gibson in the seventh game.  Unlike some of our historians in the group, though, I didn't really know all about that series.  I'd heard about Curt Flood's slip and Lou Brock's non-slide, but I don't think I knew that the Cards had that 3-1 Series lead and a good chance to win it in 5.  This year would have been #12 in '11 if that'd happened, so at least there's a silver lining somewhere.

The book follows the Cardinals and the Tigers throughout their season, but also spends some time elsewhere.  Don Drysdale's scoreless inning streak is recounted, as well as Luis Tiant's efforts over in the American League.  Wendel also makes mention of perhaps one of the most amazing batting efforts in baseball history--how Frank Howard hit ten home runs in six games during The Year of the Pitcher.  When they lowered the mound after that season due to the pitching prowess going on, you know that was a feat.

All in all, this is going to be a book that you are going to want on your bookshelf if you are a fan of baseball history in general or Cardinal history in specific.  It's a quick and entertaining read and one that you'll probably come back to time and time again.




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Heroes
Matt Carpenter (4)
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Rafael Furcal (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
David Freese (2)
Jaime Garcia (2)
Yadier Molina (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
David Freese (2)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
Jason Motte (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Marc Rzepczynski (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 10
Happy Flight %: 70%

Through 5/15

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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