num_pages: 232
description: The extraordinary story of the 1968 baseball seasonwhen the game was played to perfection even as the country was being pulled apart at the seams From the beginning 68 was a season rocked by national tragedy and sweeping change. Opening Day was postponed and later played in the shadow of Martin Luther King Jr.s funeral. That summer as the pennant races were heating up the assassination of Robert Kennedy was later followed by rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But even as tensions boiled over and violence spilled into the streets something remarkable was happening in major league ballparks across the country. Pitchers were dominating like never before and with records falling and shut-outs mounting many began hailing 68 as The Year of the Pitcher. In Summer of 68 Tim Wendel takes us on a wild ride through a season that saw such legends as Bob Gibson Denny McLain Don Drysdale and Luis Tiant set new standards for excellence on the mound each chasing perfection against the backdrop of one of the most divisive and turbulent years in American history. For some players baseball would become an insular retreat from the turmoil encircling them that season but for a select few including Gibson and the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals the conflicts of 68 would spur their performances to incredible heights and set the stage for their own run at history. Meanwhile in Detroitwhich had burned just the summer before during one of the worst riots in American history68 instead found the city rallying together behind a colorful Tigers team led by McLain Mickey Lolich Willie Horton and Al Kaline. The Tigers would finish atop the American League setting themselves on a highly anticipated collision course with Gibsons Cardinals. And with both teams seasons culminating in a thrilling World Series for the agesone team playing to establish a dynasty the other fighting to help pull a city from the asheswhat ultimately lay at stake was something even larger: baseballs place in a rapidly changing America that would never be the same. In vivid novelistic detail Summer of 68 tells the story of this unforgettable seasonthe last before rule changes and expansion would alter baseball foreverwhen the country was captivated by the national pastime at the moment it needed the game most.
language: English
title: Summer of '68: The Season That Changed Baseball—and America—Forever
publisher: Da Capo Press