October 1964

David Halberstam - 1995 Random House Publishing Group

Although this book has been around for a while, it was nice to read it in context of more recent books that have been published about some of the players from that time; namely Mantle and Maris among others.

Halberstam has a great gift for making a nonfiction work about a statistically-crazed sport read like a novel.  Considering some of the elements involved in that summer of 1964, this is a novel with profound racial themes and a clear dichotomy between an old way of thinking, represented by the Yankees, and a new way of life, represented by the Cardinals.  Halberstam doesn't either stop at the players, also describing how these changes affected all aspects of baseball from the front office to scouts to the press corp.

October 1964 is an easy, enjoyable book and one recommend for someone just looking for a nice baseball read.