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Memories of Summer: When Baseball Was an Art and Writing About it a Game
A sports journalist reminisces about the days of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays, when writers hung out with ball players, before the days of agents and publicists. by the author of The Boys of Summer.
304 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1997
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234 people want to read
About the author
Roger Kahn
44 books64 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Roger Kahn was best known for The Boys of Summer, about the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Roger Kahn was best known for The Boys of Summer, about the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
September 11, 2022
I think I am in the minority here with my reaction to this sort of an autobiography by noted baseball writer Roger Kahn. This disjointed all over the place work was written when Kahn was in his seventies and reads like a work by an older gentleman who has lost his filter and does not care who knows it.
The number of four letter words are astounding, he puts profanity into many of the mouths of the baseball personalities he profiles, and it seems so unnecessary. Kahn also recreates verbatim conversations from forty, fifty and sixty years in the past.
This is sort of his life in baseball, but he skips over his book The Boys of Summer. We do read about his father, his beginnings in journalism, the first World Series that he covered as a member of the staff of the New York Herald Tribune, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and others from the 1950's.
Kahn spends time in the book trashing all editors, those who work for newspapers and especially those who work for magazines. He also extolls his own work which he clearly thought should never have been edited.
I did like his stories of his father and the stories of his teenage years as he expressed his fear that he would have to enter World War II. I also enjoyed his anecdotes on covering baseball as a beat writer following a team throughout the season. All in all this memoir was not one of his best.
The number of four letter words are astounding, he puts profanity into many of the mouths of the baseball personalities he profiles, and it seems so unnecessary. Kahn also recreates verbatim conversations from forty, fifty and sixty years in the past.
This is sort of his life in baseball, but he skips over his book The Boys of Summer. We do read about his father, his beginnings in journalism, the first World Series that he covered as a member of the staff of the New York Herald Tribune, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and others from the 1950's.
Kahn spends time in the book trashing all editors, those who work for newspapers and especially those who work for magazines. He also extolls his own work which he clearly thought should never have been edited.
I did like his stories of his father and the stories of his teenage years as he expressed his fear that he would have to enter World War II. I also enjoyed his anecdotes on covering baseball as a beat writer following a team throughout the season. All in all this memoir was not one of his best.
September 20, 2016
Renown sportswriter Roger Kahn drifts back into time and puts together a mishmash of remembrances from his youth through the time of publication, 1997. Much like ones memory really works.
While still enjoying the entertaining Kahn style, the book takes a few different tacts on story lines. At first, it is an auto-biography, thoughts on all those things he learned from his Father, particularly baseball of course, and having fun going to a ball game. I particularly liked his remembering of the long forgotten everyday players that seem so big for a kid, but don’t stand the test of time like the stars do.
Kahn’s heyday is the 40s-50s Brooklyn teams, so you get a lot of rehash of those famous runs at the pennant, and World Series, the failures, that the Bums are famous for, the heartbreak that makes a real fan. If you’ve read some on this era, it will sound like a lot of replays of replays.
Roger then switches to telling how he advanced in his writing career. Interesting insights into the publishing industry and a world of newspapers that is long gone. He hops jobs for the sincerity of his art, and at times for money, just like the ballplayers he covers.
If you love Kahn, you’ll love this book, otherwise it’s still an entertaining read for the baseball fan.
While still enjoying the entertaining Kahn style, the book takes a few different tacts on story lines. At first, it is an auto-biography, thoughts on all those things he learned from his Father, particularly baseball of course, and having fun going to a ball game. I particularly liked his remembering of the long forgotten everyday players that seem so big for a kid, but don’t stand the test of time like the stars do.
Kahn’s heyday is the 40s-50s Brooklyn teams, so you get a lot of rehash of those famous runs at the pennant, and World Series, the failures, that the Bums are famous for, the heartbreak that makes a real fan. If you’ve read some on this era, it will sound like a lot of replays of replays.
Roger then switches to telling how he advanced in his writing career. Interesting insights into the publishing industry and a world of newspapers that is long gone. He hops jobs for the sincerity of his art, and at times for money, just like the ballplayers he covers.
If you love Kahn, you’ll love this book, otherwise it’s still an entertaining read for the baseball fan.
January 18, 2013
A story so good you'd believe it was fiction.
Let me explain this way: Growing up, I was never a fan of the Dodgers, they were my Giants' rival. This book made me a fan. In fact, this book made me long to be the kind of fan Khan was, want to be a roadie for a team I barely knew of beyond a few big names a week before. It revived my slumped interest in baseball overall, and taught me a lot that I had never considered about the sport.
There's not one place in this book where names and stats are thrown at the reader; every name and every statistic is a story, some seen from the wide eyes of a child and some with the reverence of an adult around his human heroes. Neither is this book a whitewash nor the disillusionment of heroes not living up to their image: Everyone is alive and fresh, everyone has a meticulously researched backstory told with a folksy sense of humor about their all-too-human foibles. Mixed into the stories are comments from the people involved from interviews many years later, when they can look back with more honesty, written in seamlessly. Of course not everyone's stories match - instead of choosing a truth, Khan just lays a few sides out, lets the reader feel some of the disharmony that occasionally shook the teams, without stopping to exhaustively debate the reality of each.
It's very obvious that Khan is an astute master of language, someone who spent fifty years not only writing stories daily but perfecting his craft. The emotion he pours into every page never comes off tacky or trite, it's manly but not chauvinistic, and filled with a lifelong boyish wonder. Most of all, the retelling of each game is something special, breathing life back into an afternoon decades past. He manages to create an incredibly visceral picture of the highs and lows, tossing in more stories to bridge the plays, and inspires plenty of envy. It never gets old, and no technique is overused enough or story long enough to grate.
The book certainly shifts dramatically with the move away from Brooklyn, slows down a bit and comes back to earth as it accelerates through the years, but I never lost interest in it. I wish this book hadn't been stolen from me; someday I'll find it again and finish the last few chapters. I really do want to hear the last word - and then pass it on to another Dodger fan who just doesn't know it yet.
Let me explain this way: Growing up, I was never a fan of the Dodgers, they were my Giants' rival. This book made me a fan. In fact, this book made me long to be the kind of fan Khan was, want to be a roadie for a team I barely knew of beyond a few big names a week before. It revived my slumped interest in baseball overall, and taught me a lot that I had never considered about the sport.
There's not one place in this book where names and stats are thrown at the reader; every name and every statistic is a story, some seen from the wide eyes of a child and some with the reverence of an adult around his human heroes. Neither is this book a whitewash nor the disillusionment of heroes not living up to their image: Everyone is alive and fresh, everyone has a meticulously researched backstory told with a folksy sense of humor about their all-too-human foibles. Mixed into the stories are comments from the people involved from interviews many years later, when they can look back with more honesty, written in seamlessly. Of course not everyone's stories match - instead of choosing a truth, Khan just lays a few sides out, lets the reader feel some of the disharmony that occasionally shook the teams, without stopping to exhaustively debate the reality of each.
It's very obvious that Khan is an astute master of language, someone who spent fifty years not only writing stories daily but perfecting his craft. The emotion he pours into every page never comes off tacky or trite, it's manly but not chauvinistic, and filled with a lifelong boyish wonder. Most of all, the retelling of each game is something special, breathing life back into an afternoon decades past. He manages to create an incredibly visceral picture of the highs and lows, tossing in more stories to bridge the plays, and inspires plenty of envy. It never gets old, and no technique is overused enough or story long enough to grate.
The book certainly shifts dramatically with the move away from Brooklyn, slows down a bit and comes back to earth as it accelerates through the years, but I never lost interest in it. I wish this book hadn't been stolen from me; someday I'll find it again and finish the last few chapters. I really do want to hear the last word - and then pass it on to another Dodger fan who just doesn't know it yet.
February 27, 2012
Roger Kahn knows how to write about baseball, and his writing is enjoyable in or out of season. This book is worthwhile alone for its chapters on Mantle and Mays.
February 17, 2022
Probably the best baseball writer ever. This is a must read for baseball fans.
May 18, 2015
There have been some great baseball authors, including Roger Angell, W.P. Kinsella, Jim Murray (and even George Will would like to be noted among them). There is no doubt in my mind after reading Memories of Summer that Roger Kahn deserves to be in that select number. I know it now (and Kahn seems to have known it for decades, but that doesn't get in the way).
This is in part a collection of pieces that discuss how he became interested in baseball; how he lucked out in getting a position on the New York Herald Tribune just at the time the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants were all at the top; some thoughts about baseball as a basis for literature; and, some long anecdotes about baseball seasons and certain baseball players.
If those things interest you, as much as they appeal to me, you will savor this volume.
This is in part a collection of pieces that discuss how he became interested in baseball; how he lucked out in getting a position on the New York Herald Tribune just at the time the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants were all at the top; some thoughts about baseball as a basis for literature; and, some long anecdotes about baseball seasons and certain baseball players.
If those things interest you, as much as they appeal to me, you will savor this volume.
Read
May 24, 2013Great baseball writer ranges far and wide in his memories of the game. Sensitive portrayal of his dad, fellow Brooklyn Dodger sufferer, and an up close look at callow Leo Durocher. Kahn was one of the first writers sought out by the fledgling Sports Illustrated in the mid-50s and it's laughable where that magazine started out from. The piece on Willie Mays near the end is beautiful and brought tears to my eyes. This book published in 1997 came out just before the onslaught of McGwire, Sosa, Bonds and steroids which would just about kill Kahn.
November 4, 2014
Kahn's memoirs that go hand in hand with Boys of Summer, except where that book focused on the team, this book focuses more on his journalism experiences. I read it during high school and loved every minute. I even snuck it into work at the theater I was working at.
April 26, 2013
Read this back when I was pursuing my sportswriting dream. Fond memories of reading this book at a laundromat in Ardmore, Oklahoma whenI was employed by The Daily Ardmoreite as an assistant sports editor.
August 24, 2019
I would have given this book ten stars if I could have.
Memories of Summer, first published in 1997, goes down as one of the best baseball books I have ever read. It will occupy a space on my shelf right next to The Glory of Their Times, by Lawrence S. Ritter. Keep in mind, though, that I have yet to read the author's most well-known book, The Boys of Summer. I have it, though. I just found it on a shelf. The problem is, I don't know what books I have and don't have. This makes trips to the used book store problematic.
But I digress.
In Memories of Summer, Roger Kahn gives us a charming glimpse into his childhood, going to Brooklyn Dodgers games with his father. They had to be a bit sneaky about it, sometimes, as his mother was not fond of baseball.
Roger wanted to play baseball, but wasn't quite good enough. So he dreamed of being a writer. The thing is, he didn't exactly dream of being a sports writer. He dreamed of writing poetry. Keats, Yeats, Eliot, Ezra Pound, and so on. He wanted to write sonnets.
Instead, he wound up writing about baseball. And, he did it quite well. There is a bit of autobiography in this book, as Kahn chronicles his rise through the ranks of the New York Herald Tribune, from copy boy to the guy who was assigned to follow the Dodgers around and write about them for the sports page.
In addition, we learn that he was part of the writing team of the original Sports Illustrated magazine (first called "MNORX").
But most of all, we read about the great ballplayers of old, as the Brooklyn Dodgers chased a World Series title. And failed, year after year.
A lot of the players he writes about, I have heard of. Pee Wee Reese. Babe Ruth, of course. Jackie Robinson, who famously broke the "color barrier" by signing with the Dodgers. We read about managers, the likes of Leo Durocher and Casey Stengel.
Jackie Robinson and Mickey Mantle take up a large part of the book, as well as Willie Mays. It turns out, according to Roger Kahn, that Willie Mays never, in fact, said "Say hey." But he did make some spectacular catches out there in center field. The most famous one, simply called "The Catch" by most, he claims he knew he was going to catch, from the moment it came off the bat.
What we don't know, really, is how much thought goes into the mind of a player. Willie describes what was going on in his mind while he was chasing down that ball.
"'Wertz hits it. A solid sound. I learned a lot from the sound of the ball on the bat. Always did. I could tell from the sound whether to come in or go back. This time I'm going back, a long way back, but there is never any doubt in my mind. I am going to catch this ball. I turn and run for the bleachers. I got it. Maybe you didn't know that, but I knew it. Soon as it got hit, I knew I'd catch this ball.
"'All the time I'm running back, I'm thinking, "Willie, You've got to get this ball back to the infield."
"'I run fifty or seventy-five yards--right to the warning track--and I take the ball a little toward my left shoulder. Suppose I stop and turn and throw. I will nothing on the ball. No momentum going into my throw. What I have to do is this: after I make the catch, turn. Put all my momentum into that turn.' Mays looked at me intently. 'Are you following this? To keep my momentum, to get it working for me, I have to turn very hard and short and throw the ball from exactly the point that I caught it. The momentum goes into my turn and up through my legs and into my throw.
"'That's what I did. I got my momentum and my legs into that throw. Larry Doby ran to third, but he couldn't score. Al Rosen didn't even advance from first.
"'All the while I was running back, i was planning how to get off that throw.
"'Then some of them wrote, I made that throw by instinct.'"
That is just a small sample of the wonderful stories written in Memories of Summer. This book kept me gripped and engrossed from the beginning and never let up. Kahn is a master of baseball writing.
If you love baseball (and reading about it) you will love Memories of Summer. I've never even been a Dodgers fan, but I loved it.
Memories of Summer, first published in 1997, goes down as one of the best baseball books I have ever read. It will occupy a space on my shelf right next to The Glory of Their Times, by Lawrence S. Ritter. Keep in mind, though, that I have yet to read the author's most well-known book, The Boys of Summer. I have it, though. I just found it on a shelf. The problem is, I don't know what books I have and don't have. This makes trips to the used book store problematic.
But I digress.
In Memories of Summer, Roger Kahn gives us a charming glimpse into his childhood, going to Brooklyn Dodgers games with his father. They had to be a bit sneaky about it, sometimes, as his mother was not fond of baseball.
Roger wanted to play baseball, but wasn't quite good enough. So he dreamed of being a writer. The thing is, he didn't exactly dream of being a sports writer. He dreamed of writing poetry. Keats, Yeats, Eliot, Ezra Pound, and so on. He wanted to write sonnets.
Instead, he wound up writing about baseball. And, he did it quite well. There is a bit of autobiography in this book, as Kahn chronicles his rise through the ranks of the New York Herald Tribune, from copy boy to the guy who was assigned to follow the Dodgers around and write about them for the sports page.
In addition, we learn that he was part of the writing team of the original Sports Illustrated magazine (first called "MNORX").
But most of all, we read about the great ballplayers of old, as the Brooklyn Dodgers chased a World Series title. And failed, year after year.
A lot of the players he writes about, I have heard of. Pee Wee Reese. Babe Ruth, of course. Jackie Robinson, who famously broke the "color barrier" by signing with the Dodgers. We read about managers, the likes of Leo Durocher and Casey Stengel.
Jackie Robinson and Mickey Mantle take up a large part of the book, as well as Willie Mays. It turns out, according to Roger Kahn, that Willie Mays never, in fact, said "Say hey." But he did make some spectacular catches out there in center field. The most famous one, simply called "The Catch" by most, he claims he knew he was going to catch, from the moment it came off the bat.
What we don't know, really, is how much thought goes into the mind of a player. Willie describes what was going on in his mind while he was chasing down that ball.
"'Wertz hits it. A solid sound. I learned a lot from the sound of the ball on the bat. Always did. I could tell from the sound whether to come in or go back. This time I'm going back, a long way back, but there is never any doubt in my mind. I am going to catch this ball. I turn and run for the bleachers. I got it. Maybe you didn't know that, but I knew it. Soon as it got hit, I knew I'd catch this ball.
"'All the time I'm running back, I'm thinking, "Willie, You've got to get this ball back to the infield."
"'I run fifty or seventy-five yards--right to the warning track--and I take the ball a little toward my left shoulder. Suppose I stop and turn and throw. I will nothing on the ball. No momentum going into my throw. What I have to do is this: after I make the catch, turn. Put all my momentum into that turn.' Mays looked at me intently. 'Are you following this? To keep my momentum, to get it working for me, I have to turn very hard and short and throw the ball from exactly the point that I caught it. The momentum goes into my turn and up through my legs and into my throw.
"'That's what I did. I got my momentum and my legs into that throw. Larry Doby ran to third, but he couldn't score. Al Rosen didn't even advance from first.
"'All the while I was running back, i was planning how to get off that throw.
"'Then some of them wrote, I made that throw by instinct.'"
That is just a small sample of the wonderful stories written in Memories of Summer. This book kept me gripped and engrossed from the beginning and never let up. Kahn is a master of baseball writing.
If you love baseball (and reading about it) you will love Memories of Summer. I've never even been a Dodgers fan, but I loved it.
January 7, 2026
Well it doesn't rise to the level of 'The Boys of Summer' but few books could. If you like baseball and a keen observer of human nature this one is still quite good, The best parts are his youth in Brooklyn, memories of his father (and mother), Ebbets Field, and his start in journalism at the then venerable but now long defunct (died in 1966) New York Herald Tribune (which I still remember). I loved his description and wonder at the mechanics of the 'daily miracle' in creating a U.S. newspaper back then (p. 58). His account of the 1952 World Series (Dodgers v. Yankees of course) that he covered for the Herald Tribune was superb and perhaps the high point of the book for me. It may not rank among the greatest of Fall Classics but maybe for New Yorkers (Billy Martin's catch!).
There are later sections on Kahn's evolving career at various magazines--notably the very early days at Sports Illustrated and stints at Newsweek and writing for such bygones at The Saturday Evening Post. It's sad to look back on the fate of the magazine, so too the newspaper. Profiles on Leo Durocher, Allie Reynolds, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and others from the 1950s-60s were fun and interesting but seemed a bit more like filler. Khan was writing of a 'golden age' when baseball ruled American sports but of course the reality was far different--players were expendable, drank way too much, often injured with what we might call barbaric health care and not very well paid. The contrast with today's game is almost unimaginable and with all the rules changes even the game itself is different. Can't really give 4 stars as I did that for 'Boys' but 3.5, rounded down.
There are later sections on Kahn's evolving career at various magazines--notably the very early days at Sports Illustrated and stints at Newsweek and writing for such bygones at The Saturday Evening Post. It's sad to look back on the fate of the magazine, so too the newspaper. Profiles on Leo Durocher, Allie Reynolds, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and others from the 1950s-60s were fun and interesting but seemed a bit more like filler. Khan was writing of a 'golden age' when baseball ruled American sports but of course the reality was far different--players were expendable, drank way too much, often injured with what we might call barbaric health care and not very well paid. The contrast with today's game is almost unimaginable and with all the rules changes even the game itself is different. Can't really give 4 stars as I did that for 'Boys' but 3.5, rounded down.
March 18, 2018
Part autobiography, part history book, part collection of essays. This book has something for any fan. I was not a fan of "Boys of Summer" at all, refuting the 'best sports book ever' claim by readers. (Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" takes that title for me). I felt in that book, Kahn focused more on himself at first than the Dodgers' team he was covering.
In this one, Kahn talks of himself again, but in much more contextual way. He chronicles the beginnings of his love of baseball, sneaking off to Ebbetts Field with his father while telling his mother they were going to a botanical garden. (See the piece about his mother toward the end of the book for a touching piece). Kahn also talks of his early days in sports writing with the New York Herald with a bit of humility and self-deprecating wit. Another interesting part is his work with the newly founded Sports Illustrated.
He also includes pieces on Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, which is an unblinking look at the former Yankees' hero, complete with his alcohol binges and his infidelity with his wife. Those two essays alone are worth the cost of the book.
This is a great read for any baseball history fan and a perfect way to prepare for the upcoming season. I liked this one so much I may try reading "Boys of Summer" again.
In this one, Kahn talks of himself again, but in much more contextual way. He chronicles the beginnings of his love of baseball, sneaking off to Ebbetts Field with his father while telling his mother they were going to a botanical garden. (See the piece about his mother toward the end of the book for a touching piece). Kahn also talks of his early days in sports writing with the New York Herald with a bit of humility and self-deprecating wit. Another interesting part is his work with the newly founded Sports Illustrated.
He also includes pieces on Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, which is an unblinking look at the former Yankees' hero, complete with his alcohol binges and his infidelity with his wife. Those two essays alone are worth the cost of the book.
This is a great read for any baseball history fan and a perfect way to prepare for the upcoming season. I liked this one so much I may try reading "Boys of Summer" again.
August 6, 2017
Author of the well-regarded "The Boys of Summer" offers a book that is part personal memoir, part baseball writing memoir and part essays on Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays in their later years. Most interesting part to me, as a writer, was his dealings with editors who want to change his work because they don't understand baseball, have a different agenda for what he's writing or want to water down the impact of what he's writing. Opening personal chapters drag a bit, but the book finishes strong.
November 30, 2023
I like baseball and love reading about baseball. Sections of this book were great, including the part about the 1952 Dodgers season and the end where Kahn visited with Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays after their careers were over. I read this on Kindle, which I believe hurt my experience and caused me to lower my rating. There were numerous typos and I think either missing section breaks or missing copy that made parts difficult to follow. I didn't expect such errors from Kahn so I think it has to do with the electronic translation. Worth reading if you're a baseball fan, but get a hard copy.
June 30, 2022
A Refreshing Look At Baseball
I've read baseball stories that have been written by various players but never by a baseball reporter/writer. The stories the "the Bums" and their rise from meritocracy to World Series Champions just by adding a few key players. The chapters about Jackie Robinson and what this man had too endure is criminal. Managers ordering their pitchers to throw at his had an sometimes they just did it on their own. If a baserunner was stealing second and Jackie was covering spikes came up higher than for white players. And what he had to put with on road trips was appalling. The Yankees and Mickey Mantle is fascinating. I knew about the injuries but I didn't realize how bad they really were and couldn't believe he was even walking other than playing baseball. After reading about Willie Mays I didn't know how good he was in his early days
I've read baseball stories that have been written by various players but never by a baseball reporter/writer. The stories the "the Bums" and their rise from meritocracy to World Series Champions just by adding a few key players. The chapters about Jackie Robinson and what this man had too endure is criminal. Managers ordering their pitchers to throw at his had an sometimes they just did it on their own. If a baserunner was stealing second and Jackie was covering spikes came up higher than for white players. And what he had to put with on road trips was appalling. The Yankees and Mickey Mantle is fascinating. I knew about the injuries but I didn't realize how bad they really were and couldn't believe he was even walking other than playing baseball. After reading about Willie Mays I didn't know how good he was in his early days
April 5, 2025
Love this baseball book
Did you love baseball especially from the midpoint of the 20th century you will love this book. It is full of my same memories of my favorite baseball players, favorite games of favorite teams.
Did you love baseball especially from the midpoint of the 20th century you will love this book. It is full of my same memories of my favorite baseball players, favorite games of favorite teams.
November 24, 2017
Roger Kahn's contributions to baseball writing are indelible in the mind of those who love the game.
December 14, 2017
I need to revisit this gem. Roger Kahn is a treasure!
May 22, 2020
"Good Enough to Dream" is still my favorite Roger Kahn book but this one is good, too. I was curious about his writing career and now I know a lot more. He was such a great talent.
Read
October 26, 2021more of the same from Kahn
January 22, 2026
Another great Kahn book.
October 11, 2016
A very enjoyable book. It was interesting from a variety of views, how some of the big time newspapers worked and the same about the big time news magazines at that time. Kahn is a great writer, he researches heavily and his ability to "break the mold" of old fashioned baseball writers was great to see. Maybe we need someone like him again in the media of the twenty-first century. His inside stories of Mantle and Mays as well as his well known relation with Jackie robinson are priceless. All in all, a great baseball work, it brought back many stories that I had heard my father tell and names of the players I had heard about to life.
May 13, 2016
Typical Roger Kahn, beautifully written. Full disclosure, I listened to this book not read it but as far as I am concerned it takes longer and you have to pay closer attention....but it can be done at times when you can't read a book. But here is the thing....the narrator forever mispronounced the last name of Leo Durocher - a former player and one of the games most renowned Managers....constantly pronouncing it "dur - uh - chur" instead of "dur - oh - sher." Maddening. Absolutely maddening. Then in one of the books final chapters, the narrator got the pronunciation of Jim Bouton (bow - ton) wrong calling him "boo - ton." Not as maddening as Dur - uh - cher, but maddening in its own way.
I have one other complaint. When he listed his favorite books on baseball, there was not a single one that was about the Negro Leagues or any of it's stars. I don't see how one of America's most well respected baseball writers - who openly supported the leagues integration - wasn't as influenced by any of the literature written on it. Perhaps I have to do more research, but it was - on the surface anyway - disappointing.
Beyond that, it was marvelous. I gave it four stars because his writing is true baseball romance, and since I have had a love affair with the game since boyhood, that's my favorite kind of writing.
I have one other complaint. When he listed his favorite books on baseball, there was not a single one that was about the Negro Leagues or any of it's stars. I don't see how one of America's most well respected baseball writers - who openly supported the leagues integration - wasn't as influenced by any of the literature written on it. Perhaps I have to do more research, but it was - on the surface anyway - disappointing.
Beyond that, it was marvelous. I gave it four stars because his writing is true baseball romance, and since I have had a love affair with the game since boyhood, that's my favorite kind of writing.
November 25, 2021
Roger Kahn is a delight to read and an inspiration to write. I have started writing some of my own memories of summer, most of them focused on baseball.
My best friends and I have often discussed the baseball magic in New York City. That era, the subject of another Kahn book I may finish on the same day I wrote this review, began around the time our parents were married and ended during our first decade of life. Thus, Kahn's memories are special to us, as are the recollections of writer Doris Kearns Goodwin who also lived in Brooklyn about a generation apart from Kahn.
No sport celebrates its past as well as baseball and this book adds to the joy of looking back on what many might call a better game. Woody Allen's wonderful film MIDNIGHT IN PARIS focuses on a man who longs and then experiences "the good old days". Kahn's prose and appreciation for poetry enables us to see those golden days of yesteryear in an honest and yet romantic way.
In addition to his baseball stories, he recounts his relationship with his father, close and complicated, who first taught him about baseball as my did me. My father would have loved reading the accounts of the heroics of Joe DiMaggio but he would have hated reading about his character, as I did about Mickey Mantle. Nevertheless...
Five stars
My best friends and I have often discussed the baseball magic in New York City. That era, the subject of another Kahn book I may finish on the same day I wrote this review, began around the time our parents were married and ended during our first decade of life. Thus, Kahn's memories are special to us, as are the recollections of writer Doris Kearns Goodwin who also lived in Brooklyn about a generation apart from Kahn.
No sport celebrates its past as well as baseball and this book adds to the joy of looking back on what many might call a better game. Woody Allen's wonderful film MIDNIGHT IN PARIS focuses on a man who longs and then experiences "the good old days". Kahn's prose and appreciation for poetry enables us to see those golden days of yesteryear in an honest and yet romantic way.
In addition to his baseball stories, he recounts his relationship with his father, close and complicated, who first taught him about baseball as my did me. My father would have loved reading the accounts of the heroics of Joe DiMaggio but he would have hated reading about his character, as I did about Mickey Mantle. Nevertheless...
Five stars
July 14, 2013
I think it was 1972 when I read Roger's "The Boys Of Summer" which I read about in a review in the Detroit Free Press. I wanted it, and my mom ordered it for my from Hudson's. I remember the old Hudson's delivery truck (remember those) delivering it straight to my door. Back in the day, we had no Amazon, Borders or Barnes and Noble. There was the corner bookstore, Detroit's "Leisure Book Mart" on Warren which pretty much sold only paperback's, racing forms, magazines, smokes and, oh yes, a large "over 21" section.
I remember reading "The Boys of Summer" in a couple of days. Baseball fever had gripped me...hard. This story of the 1950's Brooklyn Dodgers might seem a strange choice to be loved by a 14 year old. But I did love it.
Roger Kahn wrote this book about 1996. He comes close to writing a book as entertaining as "The Boys Of Summer." Close, but not quite. This is the story of how he became a baseball writer back in the 50's. Love reading tales of Journalism, and tales of Baseball. This combines both. Recommended!
I remember reading "The Boys of Summer" in a couple of days. Baseball fever had gripped me...hard. This story of the 1950's Brooklyn Dodgers might seem a strange choice to be loved by a 14 year old. But I did love it.
Roger Kahn wrote this book about 1996. He comes close to writing a book as entertaining as "The Boys Of Summer." Close, but not quite. This is the story of how he became a baseball writer back in the 50's. Love reading tales of Journalism, and tales of Baseball. This combines both. Recommended!
January 9, 2008
It's hard to describe, truthfully, because Kahn destroyed all hope of me becoming even a competent sports writer. His approach is absolutely lyrical and his recollection is crystal clear. Cliche as it sounds, I felt like I was there with him as he covered the Giants, Yankees and his beloved Dodgers in the mid-1950s for one of the eight New York newspapers. I hear "Boys of Summer" is better but it will have to go a long way to exceed this one. There's nothing particularly revealing, other than the heretofore-thought-pious Jackie Robinson saying the s-word once, but I love books that can put me in a time and place and this, ladies and gentlemen, is how it's done.
December 31, 2008
A look back at the author's youth and early writing career. Includes extended pieces on Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. Kahn is one of the best baseball writers there has ever been.
January 4, 2010
Not an autobiography, but the good parts of his life and baseball, and writing about them.
May 10, 2011
A book worth reading slowly, to savor each unique flavor and anecdote. Kahn is a poet who happens to spend his days under the mercurial shade of a baseball cap.
October 21, 2015
Another Kahn masterpiece, the epitome of baseball literature. A splendid read for baseball fans young and old!
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