What do you think?
Rate this book
Baseball in '41: a Celebration of the "Best Baseball Season Ever"
Recreates the glory and atmosphere of the great baseball season of 1941, when DiMaggio had his record fifty-six game hitting streak, Williams batted .406, and America went to war
330 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
1 person is currently reading
177 people want to read
About the author
Robert W. Creamer
29 books28 followersRobert Watts Creamer was an American sportswriter and editor. A longtime staffer at Sports Illustrated, he was among the first people hired for the magazine and he worked as a senior editor until 1984.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
August 21, 2020
3.5 Stars
I really do like Creamer’s writing. I like when he writes about himself as a teenager in 1941, about the impending war, about Ted Williams, about DiMaggio or even about Durocher’s Brooklyn Dodgers.
The problem here is that the book is such a hodgepodge of threads. He didn’t cover anything in enough depth. I might be grading Creamer harshly here but I have read his biographies on Babe Ruth and Casey Stengel and loved them both. This book not so much.
I really do like Creamer’s writing. I like when he writes about himself as a teenager in 1941, about the impending war, about Ted Williams, about DiMaggio or even about Durocher’s Brooklyn Dodgers.
The problem here is that the book is such a hodgepodge of threads. He didn’t cover anything in enough depth. I might be grading Creamer harshly here but I have read his biographies on Babe Ruth and Casey Stengel and loved them both. This book not so much.
February 22, 2021
He says is not a social history of 1941, avers to describe what WE were listening to because individual tastes could differ. I think the book could have been strengthened with a little more social history for context. Inversely, we could have gotten to know DiMaggio and Williams more.
January 5, 2021
Robert Creamer has spent his life writing about sports in general and baseball in particular. But in this account of the 1941 baseball season he writes not just as a journalist, but as one who experienced the year first hand. The beauty and charm of this book is that Creamer is very open about his desire to share what it was like to be 19 in 1941 with observations about how even though everyone wore a hat no one thought about it or how people were not yet concerned about the war in Europe. He alternates between sports writing and cultural observation. His narrative is never weighed down by nostalgia and he cross checks his memory with the historical record so it is reliable. But he reminds us all along about the things that no one knew in 1941 from where Pearl Harbor was to who Willie Mays would be. He says that no one paid attention to DiMaggio's hitting streak until it got to be about 35 games and that the streak for homers in a game, which the Yankees were also chasing, was much more engaging at first. And, as many have noted, William's quest for .400 came only 10 years after the last person to hit that mark. There was no way to grasp that it would not happen again in our lifetimes. This is a great baseball book and particularly valuable for those who never saw the all-white, flannel-clad players of the pre-wars years.
October 6, 2020
War was on its way for the United States in 1941. The people who packed ballparks that baseball season didn't know that the year would end with Pearl Harbor, but they could see the coming war in the ways that it began to intrude even in the national passtime. It was the year that Hank Greenberg was drafted (in a protracted media drama driven by speculation that he would try to wiggle out of it somehow, which he declined to do), and a MLB game that was paused so that the gathered spectators could listen to a speech by FDR about being prepared for war.
In Baseball in '41 Robert Creamer tells the story of the great season of baseball played that year. It was the year that Ted Williams hit .406, Joe DiMaggio had his 56 game hitting streak, and the perennial losers, the Dodgers, won the NL in a nail biter of a pennant race. Even the all star game was exciting that year.
Baseball in '41 is a mix of memoir and baseball history, with a lot of real history layered on for context. I enjoyed it.
In Baseball in '41 Robert Creamer tells the story of the great season of baseball played that year. It was the year that Ted Williams hit .406, Joe DiMaggio had his 56 game hitting streak, and the perennial losers, the Dodgers, won the NL in a nail biter of a pennant race. Even the all star game was exciting that year.
Baseball in '41 is a mix of memoir and baseball history, with a lot of real history layered on for context. I enjoyed it.
December 21, 2021
Not a bad story of an interesting year in baseball and the USA. Recounting the 56 game hit streak of Joe DiMaggio, the last .400+ season of Ted Williams and the resurgence of the Brooklyn Dodgers is decent if not dry at times. The backdrop of the Americans slow joining in World War II gives the story more substance. The chapter focusing on the circus of Hank Greenberg’s drafting was interesting.
April 14, 2020
Who beats Creamer?
March 16, 2023
A very readable account of one of the greatest baseball seasons ever.
July 14, 2024
When I read Robert W. Creamer's biography of Babe Ruth a few years back, I knew that I'd come across a sportswriter and an author that I would grow to love. Creamer's work in that book is exemplary, and while more recent works (his book came out in the early Seventies) have benefited from greater access to archives and other historical records, Creamer's book might be the most enjoyable of the many tomes about Ruth. So it was with some anticipation of delight that I turned to his more personal account of following his favorite sport during a pivotal moment in sports and world history, with the Yankees and Dodgers slugging it out while Hitler menaced the free world and the Japanese laid the groundwork for Pearl Harbor.
"Baseball in '41," as its title suggests, is about the history of that moment seen through the lens of fifty years later, with the benefit of hindsight and with a sense of fun and nostalgia. Creamer makes the case that 1941 was the best baseball season ever, a subjective argument like all such arguments about which years are the "best ever" for whatever sport they're covering. I will leave it up to the individual reader to decide whether or not they agree with him, but Creamer does mount a vigorous effort to convince us of the legitimacy of his claim.
1941 was, after all, the year that Joe DiMaggio had an epic hitting streak that has never been equalled to this day, while Ted Williams was the last player to have a .400 batting average. Both records have been approached, but never broken, and it's hard to think that they will. Aside from the records, Creamer captures the sheer joy in watching players at the peak of their physical performance, with the looming spector of war and what that could mean as an ever-present (but rarely discussed) threat. Not until midway through the season does it become apparent which way the tides are turning, though Hank Greenburg's journey from Tigers star player to draftee in the army shows what is going to start occurring more regularly once the first bombs hit the naval fleet in Hawaii.
Creamer integrates world history into the narrative, of course, but the most effective part is simply him looking back at his younger self (he would turn 19 that year) and what he thought of the world and his situation in it. Such autobiographical writing can be tricky in what seems like a sports narrative where the writer doesn't always inject him- or herself into the story, but this is personal for Creamer, and he pulls it off. The story of 1941 obviously includes exclusions, like those of Black players from major league rosters, and Creamer acknowledges such things. But the overall tenor of the book is how a country staring down the abyss of potential world war found some solace, in a brief window of time, in order to enjoy the games and efforts of men with a lot of athletic skills and a healthy sense of their own worth.
"Baseball in '41" came to me in the best way, as a book I stumbled across at a local thrift store. I took a chance on it because I was a fan of Creamer's work with "Babe," and my faith was rewarded with a great sports book that isn't just about sports. It's about a moment in world history when the light was about to go out, and there was no guarantee that it would ever come back on again. But it did, and in that maybe we can find a message for our own, darkening moment. I certainly think so, and I recommend "Baseball in '41" to anyone out there looking for light.
"Baseball in '41," as its title suggests, is about the history of that moment seen through the lens of fifty years later, with the benefit of hindsight and with a sense of fun and nostalgia. Creamer makes the case that 1941 was the best baseball season ever, a subjective argument like all such arguments about which years are the "best ever" for whatever sport they're covering. I will leave it up to the individual reader to decide whether or not they agree with him, but Creamer does mount a vigorous effort to convince us of the legitimacy of his claim.
1941 was, after all, the year that Joe DiMaggio had an epic hitting streak that has never been equalled to this day, while Ted Williams was the last player to have a .400 batting average. Both records have been approached, but never broken, and it's hard to think that they will. Aside from the records, Creamer captures the sheer joy in watching players at the peak of their physical performance, with the looming spector of war and what that could mean as an ever-present (but rarely discussed) threat. Not until midway through the season does it become apparent which way the tides are turning, though Hank Greenburg's journey from Tigers star player to draftee in the army shows what is going to start occurring more regularly once the first bombs hit the naval fleet in Hawaii.
Creamer integrates world history into the narrative, of course, but the most effective part is simply him looking back at his younger self (he would turn 19 that year) and what he thought of the world and his situation in it. Such autobiographical writing can be tricky in what seems like a sports narrative where the writer doesn't always inject him- or herself into the story, but this is personal for Creamer, and he pulls it off. The story of 1941 obviously includes exclusions, like those of Black players from major league rosters, and Creamer acknowledges such things. But the overall tenor of the book is how a country staring down the abyss of potential world war found some solace, in a brief window of time, in order to enjoy the games and efforts of men with a lot of athletic skills and a healthy sense of their own worth.
"Baseball in '41" came to me in the best way, as a book I stumbled across at a local thrift store. I took a chance on it because I was a fan of Creamer's work with "Babe," and my faith was rewarded with a great sports book that isn't just about sports. It's about a moment in world history when the light was about to go out, and there was no guarantee that it would ever come back on again. But it did, and in that maybe we can find a message for our own, darkening moment. I certainly think so, and I recommend "Baseball in '41" to anyone out there looking for light.
September 28, 2021
Creamer is an excellent writer and I really enjoyed the way he wove into the baseball story the events of 1941. Particularly the growing threat of world war, and the effects of the draft on the ball players. He also wove in some events from his own life as a boy growing up in New York during this era. A baseball book, yes, but also a historical primer on the year 1941.
January 3, 2024
A pleasant surprise of a book that isn’t just about baseball. Grounded in the author’s own experiences, the book provides first hand perspectives on the social, cultural and political issues in America and the world at the time.
December 17, 2016
A very good book by the late Robert Creamer on the 1941 season for baseball. Talks a lot about the 56-game hitting streak by Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and his pursuit of batting .400, the pennant race of Dodgers and Cardinals and the World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers. Interwoven into these baseball stories is Creamer's telling of what the world was going through in the months before Pearl Harbor was bombed. Creamer was 18-19 in 1941 and looks back on this season and year and basically the last of his childhood. In 1942 he would enlist, in 1943 he would fight in the war and in 1946 he would come back home and get married and in 1948 he became a father. Very quick and easy to read with chapters around 6-10 pages mostly. I'm glad I read this and it's a good book to own for reference later in life. Good stuff. Also wrote the great biography on Babe Ruth.
April 28, 2023
This was excellent, part history, part memoir, and with all of Creamer's wonderful turns of phrase: "Instead of being a cog in the machine, Larry MacPhail was more of a sabot." "Jacob Ruppert in the early twenties buying established players like a drunk at a yard sale." "The German invasion of Russia started Hitler's long slide into the toilet." He also mentioned that, "Durocher would sometimes go out to talk with his pitcher several times in one inning," but that this was stopped by umpires. I couldn't help but think of the rule changes this year to speed up games.
Creamer does a great job of capturing the essence of the time and place of (mostly) New York in 1941. He starts by talking about how all that came later hadn't happened yet: no Willie Mays, no Pete Rose, no Rickey Henderson...even Williams and DiMaggio weren't what they eventually became. He's very good at putting the reader in the context of the time. He mentions that the Giants' first night game of 1941 was halted for 45 minutes for a presidential address on the war and it's striking how different times were then. He tells a story about how laid back Johnny Mize was: when someone told him he only had to hit a few more homeruns to tie Babe Ruth for his season record, Mize said, " I don't got to do anything, but die." Altogether, a fun, personal remembrance of one of baseball's best seasons.
Creamer does a great job of capturing the essence of the time and place of (mostly) New York in 1941. He starts by talking about how all that came later hadn't happened yet: no Willie Mays, no Pete Rose, no Rickey Henderson...even Williams and DiMaggio weren't what they eventually became. He's very good at putting the reader in the context of the time. He mentions that the Giants' first night game of 1941 was halted for 45 minutes for a presidential address on the war and it's striking how different times were then. He tells a story about how laid back Johnny Mize was: when someone told him he only had to hit a few more homeruns to tie Babe Ruth for his season record, Mize said, " I don't got to do anything, but die." Altogether, a fun, personal remembrance of one of baseball's best seasons.
October 3, 2018
Closer to 3.5. You can't even begin to deal with this book without tackling the "best baseball season ever" argument, which feels suspect for any book dealing with Major League Baseball before 1947 without more than giving a token paragraph or two about the Negro Leagues. That said, Creamer weaves an interesting tale of one of the most important seasons in MLB history with his own personal story, and that of the United States just before its entry into World War II. The stories of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak and Ted Williams' .406 season are anti-climactic but the real story here is about the 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers, who finally broke out from their decades of mediocrity and yet were still years away from their greatest success and heartbreak.
August 26, 2023
A book that is scholarly and entertaining. I had just read (or listened to, really), a book of a similar nature, where non-baseball historic events were referred to in order to provide context. But, in the former book they were dragged in, possibly the author taking the advice of someone who told him that's the way these things are done in works of this sort. But Mr. Creamer comes across as a genuine historian, not just of baseball, but of life in the U.S. in general during the period he's writing about. Besides, he quotes one of my favorite authors, P.G. Wodehouse, at length in this book, so I couldn't have disliked it even if it wasn't good. Mr. Creamer is not a sports author, he is an extremely gifted author who writes about sports -- it's a delicate distinction!
August 22, 2017
While I'm sure the author did a bunch of research, the tone of the book gives it a feeling that it's a written form of his recollections from '41. While there are a few interesting tidbits, there is not much more that can't be gleaned from a good baseball website if you have some time, besides stories about the authors childhood and the war peppered in between the baseball. No offense Mr. Creamer, but I don't really care about your overweight step sister being a great pick for beach stickball...and I'm guessing most of the other readers don't either...
Good but not great
Good but not great
July 28, 2018
The 1941 MLB season was arguably one of the most momentous in history, the year of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak and Ted Williams batting .406, and Brooklyn v the Yankees in the last world series before America went to war. However, I found that too much of this book was devoted to sometimes in-depth game summaries and that got a bit tedious. What it did though is provide motivation to pick up a Ted Williams biography... what a fascinating life he lived (and I guess might live again if someone ever figures out what to do with his frozen carcass and head).
December 29, 2022
In terms of learning about baseball and its context in America in 1941, this book is fascinating. It really was quite a year. Since I knew basically nothing before reading this book, I learned a lot. I do wish this did two things: make the players and teams more clear throughout the book, it's hard to keep them all straight, and also point out some more stats like maybe the yearly leaders in various categories and what some more of the players' careers ended up being like. It sure is impressive what is compiled in this book, though.
June 18, 2020
It’s hard to argue against Creamer’s ranking of the ‘41 season as “the Best Ever”. The book intertwines the entertaining rehash of a fascinating pennant race, two unbreakable records, the timelessness of a Yankees-Dodgers World Series with the tumultuous state of world affairs in 1941. There were many geopolitical events detailed in the book that I had forgotten about. I truly had a good time reading this.
March 31, 2021
Homespun style really captures a young man’s love of baseball and the last season before WW2. I liked the interspersed history and going’s on with world events. A little too detail oriented with tracking the season, but in all it delivered what I was looking for — great memories of great players playing a great game in the last great season before the war.
January 5, 2024
4.5 stars
A fun, nostalgic read about the last baseball season before Pearl Harbor and one of the most exciting seasons in baseball history, particularly if the reader is a fan of either the Yankees or the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Tom Parker narrates the audiobook, and his performance is very good.
A fun, nostalgic read about the last baseball season before Pearl Harbor and one of the most exciting seasons in baseball history, particularly if the reader is a fan of either the Yankees or the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Tom Parker narrates the audiobook, and his performance is very good.
July 6, 2024
I never read any of Creamer’s books when I was younger - there are plenty of Yankees books out there, and I don’t like the Yankees - but based on this I have some good stuff to look forward to. Chattily nostalgic without getting sappy, subtly insightful, very good read.
October 18, 2024
4.5. I enjoyed this book for two reasons: the telling of the story of the unknown to me 1941 baseball season and the WWII history lesson that was relayed. I think I learned more about the leadup to the US entry into WWII than II than I did in high school.
April 18, 2020
Very good book except for a few small errors in the writing, surprised no one caught it during editing . But I would recommend it to anyone interested in history and baseball
November 29, 2021
A wonderful book combining sports, memoir, and history. Effortless storytellings
October 8, 2022
A good story, good sports history book.
February 8, 2023
A lot about baseball.
September 14, 2024
A fond and fairly thorough look at one of the most memorable years in baseball, and the world. I learned a good amount, including the rules of beach stickball.
June 8, 2025
good baseball book
June 20, 2025
Surprisingly dull book from a great writer. The excruciating detail of some of the games took away from excitement of them.
December 29, 2020
GREAT BASEBALL READ BY A GREAT BASEBALL WRITER
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews