The Nineteenth Year: A Sweet Summer with the Pittsburgh Pirates
Michael Lowenstein captures the bittersweet story of the post-Francisco Cabrera era of baseball in Pittsburgh. More than a lament for nineteen years of on-the-field futility, his delightful, elegant memoir-as-history ties the team s recent efforts to restore its reputation to its more distant but storied past. It reminds us why sport matters, especially in Pittsburgh, and why remaining a fan of the team you worshipped as a youth is one of life s enduring joys.Lowenstein syncs the 2011 season with 1960 and 1971, with Bob Prince, the Lumber Company, and Roberto Clemente. But what makes this book such a pleasure to read is its seamless tapestry of coming of age in Pittsburgh, family ties, and the meaning of fandom, even when the losses are mounting. --Dr. Rob Ruck, University of Pittsburgh, Department of History, Author,Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game; The Republic of Baseball: Dominican Giants of the American Game (with Dan Manatt)Mike Lowenstein shows you re never too old to fall for a baseball team, whether the 71 Pirates of his youth or the 2011 Pirates and their beautiful new stadium of his adulthood. It s just as easy to fall for Mike s storytelling, which like a dramatic game say No. 7 of the 1971 World Series whets your appetite for the next pitch, or page. --David Markowitz, Once Upon A .406 (blog)The Nineteenth Yearand his previous book,We All We Got(about Pitt basketball), establish Michael Lowenstein as one of our very best chroniclers of Pittsburgh sport. He writes like an angel, with grace and illumination, even on the profane subject of a long-losing baseball team. --Dr. Marcus Rediker, Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History, University of Pittsburgh; Author, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1987); Villains of All Nations (2004); The Slave Ship: a Human History (2007); and The Amistad Rebellion (Nov. 12)