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The Unforgettable Season
One of Sports Illustrated ’s top 100 sports books of all-time The 1908 National League pennant race was without question the most exciting and dramatic battle of all time. Three teams, the Giants, the Cubs, and the Pirates, battled from start to finish, concluding the season with just one game separating them in the standings. The story of this race is like a Hall of Fame sprung to life, including John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance, Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, and Honus Wagner. Yet the one name that truly stands out belongs to a young Giant rookie, Fred Merkle. His base-running blunder in a key game between the Giants and the Cubs cost the New Yorkers the pennant through an entirely unforeseeable set of circumstances that set off a near-riot in New York. More than mere history, The Unforgettable Season uses a judicious selection of newspaper stories to recreate the unforgettable season through the eyes and florid language of sportswriters of the day. With no film, TV, or radio accounts of the game to cloud readers' minds with facts, the newspaper writers had free reign to invent and embellish the larger-than-life figures and events of 1908. It is their efforts that make this book often unintentionally hilarious and unforgettable.
332 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 23, 2024
Started this book a few years ago, just finished. I had misplaced it. It’s a compilation of published newspaper accounts of the 1908 National League pennant race, spring training to conclusion. Colorful, occasionally offensive, articles from a time apparently when the 5 Ws and an H were more of a suggestion.
May 1, 2011
This is one of the best sports books I've ever read.If you're a baseball fan you need to read this
book on one of the best seasons of alltime. Also read CRAZY '08,which was terrific also.
And the Cubs won it all!
book on one of the best seasons of alltime. Also read CRAZY '08,which was terrific also.
And the Cubs won it all!
June 3, 2018
This wasn’t quite what I was expecting. The whole story (of the National League season/pennant race in 1908) is told through contemporary newspaper accounts. More or less every day from April 1 to October 8 has some stories, or clips of stories from various newspapers (and occasional ads and whatnot). And a few from earlier about the hot-stove league leading up to the season.
We really get it from the Giants point of view, partly because Fleming seems to be a Giants fan, and partly because New York had lots more newspapers to pick and choose from. Still, I’d’ve liked to have more of the day-to-day of the Cubs (and Pirates, who only finished a game out).
The language and writing styles from 1908 is sort of hilarious. Almost self-parody in putting in poetry and overly ornate verbiage. There’s also the startling (though in retrospect, expected) things about “darkies” and describing the Reds as ‘Germans’ because, you know, they’re from Cincinnatti.
The clips get more numerous and longer at the end. As they should be. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the reporters covered ‘Merkle’s boner’ the day of. I would have expected it to take longer to figure out all the details of what had happened, but what we read from the day after matches pretty well to what I recall reading about it 7 or 8 decades later.
Fleming does include some parenthetical asides in some of the news stories to explain some details that are not clear a century later; it’s almost always useful and never really gets in the way. I’m not sure if it would have been better had he used his own words to describe the whole thing. I wasn’t expecting it to be news stories, but it worked.
It’s also funny how different baseball was then. Plenty of instances of crowds being basically on the field (balls hit into crowds were regularly called ground-rule doubles). With only a handful of pitchers you sort of expect Matthewson to pitch a shutout one day and come In in relief the next. It’s also weird, though hardly surprising, that the stars in that year are not always the ones whose names come down to us. Matthewson, Brown, Tinker, Evers, Chance, sure. They didn’t expect much from Marquard, as he was just starting his career. There’s a funny blurb from mid-August about who’s “today’s” greatest player: Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, or… Mike Donlin?
We really get it from the Giants point of view, partly because Fleming seems to be a Giants fan, and partly because New York had lots more newspapers to pick and choose from. Still, I’d’ve liked to have more of the day-to-day of the Cubs (and Pirates, who only finished a game out).
The language and writing styles from 1908 is sort of hilarious. Almost self-parody in putting in poetry and overly ornate verbiage. There’s also the startling (though in retrospect, expected) things about “darkies” and describing the Reds as ‘Germans’ because, you know, they’re from Cincinnatti.
The clips get more numerous and longer at the end. As they should be. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the reporters covered ‘Merkle’s boner’ the day of. I would have expected it to take longer to figure out all the details of what had happened, but what we read from the day after matches pretty well to what I recall reading about it 7 or 8 decades later.
Fleming does include some parenthetical asides in some of the news stories to explain some details that are not clear a century later; it’s almost always useful and never really gets in the way. I’m not sure if it would have been better had he used his own words to describe the whole thing. I wasn’t expecting it to be news stories, but it worked.
It’s also funny how different baseball was then. Plenty of instances of crowds being basically on the field (balls hit into crowds were regularly called ground-rule doubles). With only a handful of pitchers you sort of expect Matthewson to pitch a shutout one day and come In in relief the next. It’s also weird, though hardly surprising, that the stars in that year are not always the ones whose names come down to us. Matthewson, Brown, Tinker, Evers, Chance, sure. They didn’t expect much from Marquard, as he was just starting his career. There’s a funny blurb from mid-August about who’s “today’s” greatest player: Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, or… Mike Donlin?
January 14, 2023
Just found this book, which I read sometime in 1987 or 88, going through my box of baseball books and notice I hadn't put it on Goodreads. I have the hardcover edition, which is going for 138 bucks on Amazon! It was a decent account of the 08 season. You get a lot of info about that season when you read the biographies of the players of that era, many of which are terrific reads.
July 13, 2020
Loved the perspective of the season from the eyes off the press, it gave a new view not often seen. A worthwhile read for all.
May 22, 2014
I'm very disappointed in this book. It is a collection of newspaper accounts of the 1908 baseball season that culminated in a virtual three team tie until a tie breaker was played on October 8th. There is no narrative or background of the players, with few exceptions, and I found most of the book a chore. Not until the fateful game of September 23rd involving Merkle's boner does the book catch momentum, but that is closer to the end than the start of the account.
Yes one does get a feel for the times and the exuberance of the populace for America's great game, but some narration would have broken up the recitation of the baseball writers' accounts of the wins and losses.
The description of the chaos at the end of the September 23rd game and the inquiry by the Board of Directors(Team owners) was fascinating as it should be since it spelled the forthcoming loss by the Giants at the hands of the crafty Frank Chance and Joe Tinker.
There were some interesting items that were new to me. For instance, up until 1951 the home team could decide whether to bat first or second. Secondly. NL President Harry Pulliam committed suicide in 1909. Many attribute his depression to his decisions regarding the famous Merkle mishap. This reminded me of the untimely death of former commissioner Bart Giamatti because of the Pete Rose decision. Then there is this quote from a NY paper about Honus Wagner that struck me.(about his hold out in 1908). "Wagner has always been known as a player who worked for his individual record more than for the welfare of his team". But there is never any rebuttal or anything to confirm that statement; something a narrator could have done.
Finally I was amazed to learn that the Cincinnati Reds had already created the ability to have night baseball by 1908 and yet it was not sanctioned until 1935. I know my rating may cause furor with historians but it's just one fan's opnion
Yes one does get a feel for the times and the exuberance of the populace for America's great game, but some narration would have broken up the recitation of the baseball writers' accounts of the wins and losses.
The description of the chaos at the end of the September 23rd game and the inquiry by the Board of Directors(Team owners) was fascinating as it should be since it spelled the forthcoming loss by the Giants at the hands of the crafty Frank Chance and Joe Tinker.
There were some interesting items that were new to me. For instance, up until 1951 the home team could decide whether to bat first or second. Secondly. NL President Harry Pulliam committed suicide in 1909. Many attribute his depression to his decisions regarding the famous Merkle mishap. This reminded me of the untimely death of former commissioner Bart Giamatti because of the Pete Rose decision. Then there is this quote from a NY paper about Honus Wagner that struck me.(about his hold out in 1908). "Wagner has always been known as a player who worked for his individual record more than for the welfare of his team". But there is never any rebuttal or anything to confirm that statement; something a narrator could have done.
Finally I was amazed to learn that the Cincinnati Reds had already created the ability to have night baseball by 1908 and yet it was not sanctioned until 1935. I know my rating may cause furor with historians but it's just one fan's opnion
May 3, 2016
read some time in 1994
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews