The Pastime in Turbulence
Subtitle: Interviews With Baseball Players of the 1940s
Publisher: McFarland & Company
Published: May 2001
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 325
ISBN-13: 9780786409754
Subjects: American history: from c 1900 -; Baseball; Biography: sport; Postwar period, 1945 to c 2000; Second World War, 1939-1945; History; Baseball - History; Sports & Recreation; United States; Sports; USA; Interviews; General; Baseball - General; 20th century; Baseball players
First sentence: The interviews in the following pages are with several major league baseball players who have little in common other than the fact that they all played ball in the 1940s.
Description: "The 1940s were years of change. Minor league free agents were introduced in 1940 by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis; Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 and player after player left to join the war effort with men and boys both below and well above draft age completing the rosters; 1946 saw a first: two National League teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers, tied for first place, forcing a best two-out-of three series; 1947 brought Jackie Robinson to the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers; and the American League saw its own tie for first in 1948 between the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox, resolved in a one-game playoff."

"This work focuses on 27 players of the 1940s, guys - like Gene Thompson, Elmer Valo, Damon Phillips, Joe Cleary, and Cliff Chambers - who witnessed these firsts and changes personally. The players interviewed had very different experiences in the major leagues and came from diverse backgrounds as well."--Jacket.