Sentimental because it holds such promise, and bittersweet because that promise is past, the first sentence of this masterpiece of sporting literature, first published in the early '70s, sets its tone. What follows only gets better, deeper, more sentimental, and more bittersweet. Roger Kahn, who covered that team for the New York Herald Tribune, makes understandable humans of his heroes as he chronicles the dreams and exploits of their young lives, beautifully intertwining them with his own, then recounts how so many of those sweet dreams curdled as the body of these once shining stars grew rusty with age and battered by experience. Wallace, who also assembled the beautiful Baseball Anthology, has collected bits and pieces of obscure autobiographies and other written arcana from some of the best who ever played. And while Treasures, officially sanctioned by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, can't replace the real thing, it can certainly whet appetites, rekindle memories, and fire up imaginations.
Heroes have a habit of growing larger over time, as do the arenas in which they excelled.
The 1964 World Series between the Yankees and Cardinals was coated in myth from the get-go. Halberstam, one of the great reporters of the '60s, looks back in this marvelous and spirited elegy to the era, the game, and players such as Mantle, Maris, Ford, Gibson, Brock, and Flood with a clear eye in search of the truth that time has blurred into legend.