The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers

by Michael Leahy, Joe Barrett (Narrator)

Legendary Dodgers Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski, and Tommy Davis encapsulated 1960s white and black, Jewish and Christian, wealthy and working class, pro-Vietnam and anti-war, golden boy and seasoned veteran. The Last Innocents is a thoughtful, technicolor portrait of these seven players - friends, mentors, confidants, rivals, and allies - and their storied team that offers an intriguing look at a sport and a nation in transition.

Michael Leahy places these men's lives within the political and social maelstrom that was the era when the conformity of the 1950s gave way to demands for equality and rights. Increasingly frustrated over a lack of real bargaining power and an oppressive management who meddled in their personal affairs, the players shared an uneasy relationship with the team's front office. This contention mirrored the discord and uncertainty generated by myriad changes rocking the the civil rights movement, political assassinations, and growing hostility to the escalation of the Vietnam War.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, History, American History, Audiobook, Politics

Audible Audio

Published April 28, 2017

About the author

Michael Leahy is the author of The Last Innocents: The Los Angeles Dodgers of the 1960's and When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan’s Last Comeback, which was described by GQ Magazine as “the best sports book of the year…easily the most fully formed portrait of Jordan ever written and one of the best sports books in recent memory.” His award-winning career has included thirteen years as a writer for The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine. Leahy's 2005 Washington Post Magazine story about a California sperm donor won the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for best magazine story of the year. His stories have been selected four times for the annual Best American Sports Writing anthologies. He lives outside Washington D.C.

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1960s are considered as a turning point in American history. With the apex of the decade turning fifty years old this year, much has been written and produced about watershed moments over the last few years. The country had moved on from World War II, and the baby boom generation moved toward young adulthood at a breakneck speed. Rock and roll, color television, and racy celebrities replaced the slower paced popular culture of previous generations. Politically, civil rights and the escalation of fighting in a little known southeast Asian country would dominate the headlines. On the baseball field, America’s pastime appeared stuck in the past, challenged by football as a threat to overtake it for popularity and the moniker of America’s game. No where did the culture clash appear more apparent than with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team had been on the west coast for a decade, shedding all reminders of its Brooklyn roots. It is in this environment that Los Angeles native and gifted sportswriter Michael Leahy writes the Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent 1960s and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Following the team’s move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1957, the Dodgers shed the nickname of bums and came to dominate the National League. A World Series title in 1959 followed by one in 1963 combined with a stellar minor leagues showed that the Dodgers were among baseball’s royalty. Movie stars and celebrities came to every game at a Dodger Stadium surrounded by palm trees and an organ system that belted out rock and roll tunes. As the players linking the team to Brooklyn aged out and retired, the Dodgers could finally be referred to as Los Angelenos. Led by superstar pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale as well as speedster team leader Maury Wills and a stellar lineup, the team appeared as a lock to continue their dominance of the national League well into the next decade. With the reserve clause tying players to one team for the remainder of their career barring a trade, the Dodgers looked to be poised to win many more World Series crowns as the decade rolled on. Yet, these were the sixties; the wholesome days of kids playing with hula hoops and Davy Crockett caps were coming to an end, and the turbulence permeating society as a whole was about to invade baseball.

A month after the Dodgers’ 1963 victory against the Yankees, Americans stopped to collectively mourn the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Dodgers catching prospect Jeff Torborg, a future major league manager of five teams, felt numb for days and took the time to mourn with his wife Suzie. African American players grew nervous as Kennedy had promised increased civil rights in the still segregated south. Kennedy’s successor Lyndon B Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into being in 1964, yet the south fought it tooth and nail. This was apparent at the Dodgers spring training facilities in Vero Beach, Florida as African American players enjoyed no liberties outside of the ballpark. Lou Johnson was accosted at a local laundromat, and hotels, restaurants, parks, swimming pools, and the beach remained segregated. While the Dodgers, pressed by Wills to take action, did their part by removing segregation signs on the bathrooms and drinking fountains at the team’s ballpark, Vero Beach was still the south, and blacks did not feel welcome. April in Los Angeles could come soon enough.

The Last Innocents would still have been a stellar book if Leahy focused on the Dodgers’ 1965 World Series title and ended it there. The season takes up a large section of the book, and focuses largely on Sandy Koufax’ march toward becoming a pitching legend. His no-hitter contrasting with his arm troubles dominated the team headlines. Players knew they could depend on Koufax to be his dominating self, yet, with increasing arm troubles and the need to dope himself up prior to each game, he knew that the end was near, that 1965 would be the last hurrah. Leahy also writes of players as Wes Parker, Lou Johnson, Dick Tracewski, and Torborg and their roles in leading the Dodgers to the title. Yet, the key focus is on Wills and his ability to create runs with his speed, and Koufax’ ability to pitch a gem each time out as he marched to immortality and the end of an iconic career. In a decade of civil rights gains, Koufax not pitching on Yom Kippur is still a talked about story over fifty years later, as American Jews welled with pride in seeing one of their own achieve lofty feats. In addition to racist sentiments, anti-Semitic sentiments still pervaded society, as many fans preferred Drysdale with his movie star looks to Koufax. The two pitchers enjoyed such stardom, however, especially after another title, and they would move baseball toward a breaking point.

After 1965, Leahy writes that baseball would never be seen as a wholesome sport again. He was in attendance when Koufax pitched a perfect game in 1966 and like all fans had no idea that this would be the star’s final season. Dodger management under team owner Walter O’Malley and henchman Buzzie Bavasi undervalued their players, playing them off of each other to limit player salaries. The days of one year deals would soon be coming to an end as players began to organize under new union chief Marvin Miller. Prior to the 1966 season, Koufax and Drysdale formed a team of two and successfully negotiated $100,000 contracts. Yet, Wills and other stars would never reach that vaulted plateau in their careers. Wills captained the team and generated the most runs, but in the eyes of O’Malley did not merit more than scant raises each year. Wills would be one of the first to listen to Miller and his fight to help the players break the owners’ unconstitutional reserve clause. That would not come until half a decade later, but owners heard players rumblings and grumblings and saw football’s success in the rear view mirror and realized that the days of psychologically dominating and underpaying players would soon be coming to an end. Wills and his teammates would largely not be around to enjoy new player rights, but a new generation of Dodger stars would benefit from this struggle in the years to come.

Leahy brings the 1960s to a heated close as he writes of the escalation in Vietnam, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy, and the Watts riots, and Dodger players’ response to them. Dodger dominance of the national league had ended by 1968. The O’Malleys had traded Wills and Tracewski, and the stars of the 1970s had yet to make the major leagues. Drysdale would only pitch for two more seasons, and the team fell to the second division. Jim Mudcat Grant, once a Dodger foe in the 1965 World Series, found himself in Dodger blues via a trade. He had once met with President Kennedy and voiced the need to desegregate his home town. On June 4, 1968, he was on his way to greet Robert Kennedy at his campaign headquarters when he heard that the senator had been shot. Torborg, numb following the president’s assassination five years earlier, was numb once again. Baseball had already delayed the opening of the season following the murder of Dr King, and ordered games to be played on the day of Senator Kennedy’s funeral, a National day of mourning. Although Marvin Miller had organized the player union, the commissioner still fined players who refused to play on June 8. The decade, filled with the ascendency of rock music, drugs, Vietnam, and political turmoil would soon be coming to a screeching halt. Drysdale would retire following the 1969 season, and most links to the Dodgers 1963 and 1965 titles would have moved on as the 1970s dawned.

Today players have agents who negotiate multi million dollar multi year deals for them. As recently as the 1960s owners still controlled players with the reserve clause and signing them to one year contracts. Michael Leahy documents this turbulent decade focusing on Dodger star players Sandy Koufax and Maury Wills and their place within the echelon of Dodger stars and in society. Woodstock, Doris Day, Milton Berle, and the Beatles make cameo appearances. Lee Harvey Oswald’s brother Robert does as well, reflecting how his family and the United States moved on. Football emerged as a sport with glitzy stars and today is more widely watched than baseball as its owners and leaders foresaw how to move the sport toward the future. Baseball has always been rooted in the past, yet 1965 saw the end of the sport’s wholesomeness as the player’s union shattered the owners’ infallible hold on them. With baseball now firmly rooted in California symbolizing its move toward the future, the 1960s saw baseball and the United States at a crossroads. Michael Leahy through his own recollections and extensive player interviews brought readers along for a turbulent ride.

4.5 stars

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fantastic. It's a lot better than I was expecting. It's an overview of the Dodgers from 1962-66, in their years of glory. That said, it's not a bunch of game accounts. In fact, author Leahy skims over entire seasons at times.

He's primarily interested in the people, and we get plenty of discussion of various figures in the Dodgers - mostly Maury Wills, Wes Parker, and Sandy Koufax, but also Lou Johnson, Jeff Torborg, Tommy Davis, and Dick Tracewski. It's a collection of stars, role players, and others -- basically, the people Leahy interviewed at length for the book. You get really good portraits of what these people were like and their own issues during the 1960s. There is rich boy Wes Parker trying to prove his own worth to himself after years of abuse/neglect by his parents. There is Lou Johnson trying to channel his anger while earning a spot on a big league roster. There is Sandy Koufax with his competitiveness beneath his gentlemanly demeanor and desire for privacy. The most memorable character is Maury Wills. About the only thing I'd ever heard about his personal character previously was Bill James stating that he was a self-absorbed jerk, but he comes off very different here.

Leahy spends a tremendous amount of time on Koufax's three most important games - Game One of the 1963 World Series, his perfect game (which Leahy attended as a child), and Game Seven of the 1965 Fall Classic. And he'll discuss other matters as well. For example, immediately after the Watts Riot in LA, the Dodgers traveled to San Francisco for the infamous Marichal-Roseboro brawl. (Note: he misses one other thing - just before the riot, the Dick Allen-Frank Thomas fight occurred, with its racial overtones. No, it's not a Dodger thing, but if you're trying to incorporate the Dodgers in the context of the era, that should be noted).

The main theme was that this was a great team at a time when baseball itself was changing. The owners and GMs called the shots. Players weren't supposed to use representatives in contract negotiations - and they didn't. Teams had all the leverage - and they used it. But some things occurred on the Dodges that helped show how that old system was cracking, most notably the joint hold-out by Koufax and Drysdale. There is also Buzzie Bazavi bragging to the media about how he tricked players into signing lower contracts - and the resentment that caused. One of the most memorable parts of the book occurs after the 1966 World Series, when Walter O'Malley badgered several tired players into making them take a team tour of Japan. No one wanted to be there and some shouldn't stayed home. Maury Wills injured an already game leg, and left without permission - causing O'Malley to demand the GM trade him. Overall, you can see player resentment building against the system - just as Marvin Miller is taking over the union.

It's a really good book whose character portraits really make it move. On the downside don't look for Leahy for any sophisticated baseball analysis. It's all batting average and pitcher wins. He stumps for Maury Wills for Cooperstown in the book. Also, it could use an index. Overall, though, it's fanastic.

[Harold Kasselman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is nothing short of a masterpiece. This is on par with The Boys of Summer, and even better than The Summer of 49, or The Teammates: A Portrait of Friendship. I was emotionally moved by the writing of Mr. Leahy's portrait of a team, a group of young men, and the transition of these innocents to a new era of upheaval and change. I am amazed at how much personal anguish and detail Mr. Leahy was able to garner from his LA Dodger protagonists. While the author states that he focused on seven players of that 60's era, he really concentrates on Maury Will and Wes Parker. Both men have astonishing personal tales of anguish to convey. Wills, aside from the racial bigotry in his life and especially at Vero Beach, was obsessively driven to prove himself and become a major leaguer after eight season in the minors. So fierce was his need, that the pursuit controlled his existence. His competitive fires raged so profoundly that Wills would actually cry if he or his team failed to win or play up to his standards. His need to prove he belonged was so fierce that he mimicked Ty Cobb in his willingness to spike opponents if necessary.(Ask Joe Torre). Wills worked beyond his abilities to gain the respect of baseball executives and his teammates. As captain of those Dodgers, he demanded perfection from them as he did of himself.Wills needed baseball to save him from the poverty of the inner city and he would bludgeon his legs to steal bases and score runs for his paltry offensive team. Wes Parker's obsession was as great as Wills, but its genesis was his lack of self worth that had been born from parents who made him feel worthless as a child. So, while he didn't love the game itself, he loved what the game ultimately gave him-value and worthiness. The stories about Parker are heart breaking in intensity especially when one realizes that he came from a family mansion of five acres in Brentwood, a next door neighbor of General Omar Bradley or movie celebrities. His life could have been financially easy, but he needed to make his own way away from his parents. There is plenty about the great Sandy Koufax. He remains so intensely private that when Mr. Leahy interviewed him, it was not to be about Koufax but strictly about his teammates and especially Maury Wills. When Leahy tells Koufax in the telephone interview,that as a twelve year old, he was in the stands during his perfect game, there is silence on the other end of the phone.There is so much to unpack here(as the commentators say), but it's so true There is the profile of a paradoxical Lou Johnson, who had a rage inside of him because of racial bigotry, but who could also be that "sweet Lou" that relaxed his teammates. There are stories about Sandy's perfect game, the awe for which his fellow teammates felt for him, the lengths to which Koufax went to blur the pain of his arthritic elbow, the terrible episode in 1965 between Marichal, Koufax and Roseboro with a sobbing Willie Mays as peace maker. There is the marvelous story of the 1965 World Series and the Yom Kippur first game that made Koufax a deity among his Jewish followers and the game seven masterpiece that Koufax threw to win on just his fastball alone. Finally there is the 1966 dual holdout by Koufax and Drysdale-the first collective bargaining unit against the Walter O'Malley/Buzzi Buvasi regime. The discussions of the total control of those executives over the career and lives of the players is pointedly made especially with Maury Wills breaking down and crying and begging for his well earned raises. Leahy tells us how Marvin Miller broke into baseball and changed forever the game. There are also historical undertones like the Kennedy assassinations, the civil rights movement, and Vietnam that forever altered the lives of the last innocents. For me, this is simply a must read.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Boston Red Sox have referred to George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees management as “the Evil Empire”. But Steinbrenner was an amateur compared to the Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley of the 50s and 60s. I had no idea. My favorite teams of all time were the 1962 and 1963 Dodgers. The players (Koufax and Drysdale and many others) were among the best of all time. Little did I, or any other fan, realize that O’Malley regularly treated them with disrespect and even contempt. O’Malley, almost single-handedly, brought about the creation of the now-powerful MLB Players Union. It’s all covered in this well-written and heavily-researched book.
The book also details, magnificently, the Dodgers’ great seasons of the early 60s. Truly a fine piece of research and writing.

[Stephen Dittmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the weaving together of different player narratives and perspective as a way to tackle nearly a decade of baseball and society.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Los Angeles Dodgers were a very successful franchise in the early and mid 1960’s, winning two World Series and three National League pennants during that time frame and drew millions of fans to the new Dodger Stadium, christened in 1962. How that team not only became so good on the field but also became a symbol of the city during that decade is captured in this excellent book by Michael Leahy.

The book centers around a few key players for those Dodger teams – Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski and Tommy Davis. The stories of these men – white and black, Jewish and Christian, upper class and middle class – are intertwined both as teammates on a very successful baseball team but also as young men going through the changes taking place in the city and in the nation.

The stories for these men are not just about their baseball skills but also their personal struggles as well. The anguish of Wes Parker’s lack of self-confidence despite his family wealth was one of the best personal stories and it was never far from his mind, even when after begging to be allowed to sign with the team, he became one of the best defensive first basement in the game at that time.

There are also riveting passages about how Wills, Davis and other black players on the team such as Lou Johnson (who would picture the ball pitched at him as a white person when he would hit it – a great statement in the context of the book) was dealing with prejudice in not only Los Angeles, but in Vero Beach, Florida.; the town where the team held spring training. Of course, their stories also include the Watts riots and how they were affected. The meshing of the societal and political changes with the lives of these men shows the superb writing in this book.

The baseball passages reflect the same outstanding quality, especially in the coverage of three important games that Sandy Koufax pitched – his victory over the Yankees in the 1963 World Series (many baseball historians believe that game was the beginning of the end of the Yankee dynasty of the early 1960’s), his perfect game in 1965 against the Cubs, and his game 7 victory in the 1965 World Series over the Minnesota Twins. As an aside, the tale of when Koufax first mentioned to anyone that he was going to retire after the 1966 World Series (Dodgers were swept by the Baltimore Orioles) was another excellent passage that in just a few words, the reader will get an excellent look into the psyche of the man. That was the case for all of the players portrayed, not just Koufax.

Lastly, if there is a villain in this baseball book that almost reads like a novel, it would be the combination of owner Walter O’Malley and general manager Buzzie Bavasi. Readers will learn the harsh contract negotiations each player encountered with Bavasi every off-season. This was during the time of the reserve clause when players were bound to a team unless they were traded or released, so the owners had all the leverage. The stories of these sessions in which Wills was trying to become one of the better paid players on the team are especially interesting, as is the well-known story of Koufax and Don Drysdale holding out together before the 1966 season in order to obtain better contracts.

O’Malley comes across as a iron-clad ruler with very few exceptions that are not consistent. How he treated Parker and Wills when neither wanted to play in a goodwill tour of Japan after the 1966 season is a case in point. Parker asked to be left behind before the tour started and was granted that status, but Wills’ similar request was not, even though he was nursing a sore knee. When Wills injured that knee in Japan and left for treatment, O’Malley was so upset at this case of insubordination that he traded Wills to the Pittsburgh Pirates. This made for another section of excellent, entertaining reading.

Any fan of baseball during that time frame, whether a Dodgers fan or not, is advised to pick up this book and enjoy it immensely.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leahy writes, and writes a lot, in a long history of the Los Angeles Dodgers from the 1962-66 seasons when the team won two World Series, three NL pennants, and just missed out on a fourth. The book is told mainly through the lens of two players: Maury Wills and Wes Parker. For the most part, Leahy succeeds more often than he fails. To a lesser extent, Dick Tracewski, Al Ferrara, and Jeff Torborg, also drive the action.

Wills and Parker both enjoy talking and telling stories and they were present for most of the key moments. They also had insights into the Dodgers most celebrated player of the era: Sandy Koufax. (Koufax is quoted frequently in the book, mostly as a result of a 2009 interview Koufax gave Leahy about Wills. Koufax does not like to talk about himself at all.)

The players are the definite heroes of the story, with Dodgers GM Buzzie Bavasi serving as almost a pantomime villain, doing his best to exploit the Dodgers players with lowball salary offers. Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley shows up occasionally.

Leahy veers a little bit off course when writing about Koufax's 1965 perfect game, which he attended in person. The change in narrative tone comes with no warning and the sudden appearance of the first person is a little disconcerting.

Some of the major players for the Dodgers of this era make little but cameo appearances. Don Drysdale, the Dodgers other ace, is deceased. Jim Lefebvre, the NL Rookie of the Year in 1965, is barely heard from. Don Sutton, a rookie in 1965, doesn't get quoted.

Other things I quibble with about the book are its lack of an index and a short list of sources cited. Leahy relied heavily on Los Angeles Times articles for information (since it's relatively easy to access back issues online), but that leaves out much of the Dodgers coverage in the competing Herald-Examiner, which doesn't exist in a nice searchable format.

[Tom Gase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, easy to read book on the 1960's and Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers won three World Series from 1959 to 1965 and played in three World Series from 1963-1966. They were the class of the National League and baseball with a great starting pitching staff of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Both players have profiles very interesting in this book, as does players such as Maury Wills, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg and others. Mainly focuses on the years 1962 to 1966 with great detail on the 1963 and 1965 World Series. If you grew up watching baseball in the 1960s, you'll love this book, even if you're a Giants fan (the 1962 race is discussed here). One of the best Dodger books I've ever read and I've read a bunch. A ton of books are written about the 1950 Brooklyn Dodgers, but not as many on the 1960's teams in L.A. that won just as many World Series in that decade as the Dodgers did in the 1950s. Also included in this book is the Watts Riots, the start of the Vietnam War, the JFK assasination, the MLK assasination, the RFK assasination (damm what a horrible violent decade), and the start of Civil Rights action. Highly recommend this book, good stuff by author Michael Leahy.

[Erich Wendt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leahy's book is one of the best baseball histories I've read in quite some time. He places the events and accomplishments of the '60's Dodgers in the context of the social and political turbulence of the time as well as the personal lives of the players very effectively. In this regard, he's done as fine a job as anyone this side of David Halberstam. The Last Innocents is beautifully written and makes for riveting reading.

[John Yingling · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding history of the 1960s and of the Los Angeles Dodgers, with wonderful insight into the culture of the time and of the players on the team.

[Mickey Mantle · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest and most intriguing "sports books" I have ever read. The book is not the usual jock glorification. It covers the era of the 60s. Things are going to change. Baseball was about to change in a big way where owners and management could not pay ridiculously low salaries to ballplayers who were basically well paid slaves. The American society of the 1960s is also highlighted.
Before Michael Jordan berating fellow players on his teams to drive them to greater heights, there was Maury Wills.
KOUFAX!!
The Wes Parker stories are captivating.
These players are not and were not mindless robots.
The mindless usually sit in the stands!!

[Greg Sheremeta · Rating 5 out of 5]

As 5 year old seeing the Dodgers at the LA Colisuem, they have been my hometown team for years. Many of the names I have forgotten, or was “wow, I don’t remember them on the Dodgers”, but the big names I will always remember. Growing up in the Crenshaw district in the early 60s, I went to elementary school with Tommy Davis’ son. But this book brought a lot of the things that a kid isn’t aware of, such as the racism in Vero Beach, what SOBs Walter O’Malley and Buzzie Bavasi were and how miniscule player salaries were compared to today. This is a great book for showing how human ball payers were, even though some of us of a certain age had them on great pedastels.

[Wayne Hastings · Rating 5 out of 5]

For most of the sixties I enjoyed my families Dodger season tickets. If we weren’t at the game, Vin Scully captivated our hearts and minds with Dodger baseball. I saw Koufax, Drysdale, Wills, Fairly, and the others. I was at the 1966 World Series game when Willie Davis’ errors broke our hearts and bid Sandy good bye. This book captures all the memories, good and bad, of the 60s and the Dodgers. I recommend it highly.

[Walt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun baseball read, especially if you lived through the 50s & 60s. Great quotations through interviews with the principals: Maury Wills, Wes Parker, Sandy Koufax, Tommy Davis, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski, and Lou Johnson.

[RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN · Rating 5 out of 5]

RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: 1960’S DODGERS… UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.. ON… AND… OFF THE FIELD. A GROWN UP KID OF THE 60’S DREAM COME TRUE!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a child born in New York to a family that lived and died with the Brooklyn Dodgers… “Dem Bums” were my life… and lo and behold when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season… my family moved right along with them. So the time period covered in this amazing… detailed… no holds barred… story of the 1960’s era Los Angeles Dodgers… is now being read and reviewed by a Grandfather… who as a kid… not only went to at least one-hundred games at the L.A. Coliseum and Dodger Stadium… during this time frame… but I watched games on TV… never went anywhere without my transistor radio listening religiously to Vince Scully…and I ran and got the Los Angeles Times from the corner liquor store every morning for the sports section… and my Dad brought home the Herald Examiner every night from his job in downtown L.A…. and the sports section went directly to me upon his entry into our house. (Note: these are the two newspapers most frequently quoted in this book.) I still have in my possession my handmade notebooks with reams of 3-hole-punched notebook papers with yellowing scotch tape holding on to pages of the actual headlines and articles that are recounted in this wondrous work of art by author Michael Leahy.

This book is akin to a gift floating down from heaven for a lifelong Dodger fan from this era. It is so well written… that I literally couldn’t stop reading it. If they filmed a movie of my reading this book… they would show tears of joy… as flashbacks took me from my Grandfatherly couch… magically back to the most wondrous days of my youth. Going from my Little League and Babe Ruth games to the Coliseum and Dodger Stadium to see my heroes up close and personal in action. And please make no mistake… the author… truly brings those dreamy days… back… in exquisite detail. What is also added… are many… many details… from the locker room… from the players private lives… the kind of things that could never… and were never… reported back in the days of black and white TV… and no 24/7 multi-media reporting. So as much as I still… to this day… remember every play… every statistic… every competitive team… I was overjoyed… to be able to start fitting missing pieces together… in Dodger personal relationships… and just as importantly… what really… really made an individual Dodger become the man… AND… player they became.

And much of this heretofore unknown detail is heartwarming… but some… in perhaps… the most surprising and sad… of the seven main ballplayers depicted/dissected… is Wes Parker… who… along with Gil Hodges… are probably… the two greatest fielding first baseman in all of Dodger history… and from a child/teenager’s (me) point of view… was movie star handsome… smooth as silk out in the field… and known to have come from an extremely privileged background. Until this utterly illuminating book… I never thought I would be sitting here feeling so sorry… and demoralized… when finding out the truth of Wes’s loveless… abusive upbringing! The other six 60’s Dodgers spotlighted are Maury Wills… Sandy Koufax… Tommy Davis…. Jeff Torborg… Dick Tracewski… and Lou Johnson. (Oh… do I remember “Sweet Lou” lighting up the Dodgers with his play and his smile!) Dodger fans… and old school baseball fans… don’t for a minute think the book is only about them. Everyone is there… the mean… lovable… Big D… the cold stoic Walt Alston… Walter O’Malley… the not as loving and charming to the Dodger Family as the media led you to believe… and perhaps one of the great villains of the book… the devious… lying… underhanded… demoralizing… general manager… Buzzie Bavasi. In fact after reading page after page on how awful Bavasi and O’Malley treated players… despite having the Pot Of Gold known as Dodger Stadium… bringing in two-and-a-half-to-three-million-fans-a-year… I… for the first time don’t hate free agency and its riches quite as much.

If the game itself… and the locker room… and family background … dissection isn’t enough… Leahy… expertly… and almost seamlessly… merges all the world’s current events… everything from the Cuban Missile Crisis… the Kennedy assassination… Viet Nam… race relations… and more… right into the daily mix of Dodger historical life.

I feel like I could literally write a book about this book… but to share one story that I think will give potential readers an idea… of the near poetic trance an old-school baseball fan will be put into… many times over… by the author… let me set it up for you. The greatest one-two pitching punch in my lifetime… was Sandy Koufax and Don “Big D” Drysdale… in their prime… back to back. After a spring training game Sandy and “Big D” had a beer with Henry Aaron… Eddie Mathews… and Rico Carty. After a few friendly and amusing stories were shared… and there were laughs and grins all around… the following transpired:

“AFTER DRYSDALE TOLD A FUNNY STORY OF HIS OWN, THE INFORMAL GATHERING BROKE UP. THE SMILING BRAVES HAD BEGUN HEADING BACK TO THEIR CLUBHOUSE WHEN DRYSDALE INTERRUPTED, THINKING A LAST POINT NEEDED TO BE MADE. HE LOOKED AT AARON AND THE OTHER RIVALS AND SAID, “YOU KNOW, JUST BECAUSE WE’RE ALL HAVING THIS FUN TIME, DON’T THINK I’M NOT GONNA KNOCK YOU ON YOUR “BUTT” WHEN YOU COME UP TO HIT.”
“THE BRAVES LOOKED AT HIM, PERHAPS WAITING FOR A LAUGH. ONLY DRYSDALE WASN’T LAUGHING. HE SPUN AROUND AND LEFT WITHOUT ANOTHER WORD, LEAVING THE BRAVES TO REALIZE THAT NOTHING ABOUT DRYSDALE THE COMPETITOR HAD CHANGED: HE WOULD LIKELY THROW AT OR NEAR THEM SOON. IN THAT INSTANT, (THEY) UNDERSTOOD THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE DODGERS’ TWO PITCHING STARS, EACH OF WHOM (THEY) ADMIRED. “DON DIDN’T WANT ANYONE EVER TO HAVE AN ADVANTAGE OVER HIM, DON WAS THE BLOOD AND GUTS OF OUR TEAM. DON STRUCK FEAR INTO PEOPLE ON A FIELD. SANDY DIDN’T HAVE TO DO ANY OF THAT. PEOPLE KNEW THEY COULDN’T HIT HIM, BUT NOBODY FEARED GETTING HURT BY HIM. OPPONENTS WERE JUST IN AWE OF HIM.”

Additionally a very short anecdote… among many… that highlighted the “sign-of-the-times”… was the “clubhouse” friendship that developed between Maury Wills and Sandy Koufax. They took to opening the others fan mail… in an effort to shield the other… from the pain… and the fear… that may be lurking within. Sandy would try to root out any racist tirades or threats from Maury’s letters… and Maury… tried to weed out any severe anti-Semitic threats or rants.

I not only recommend this book highly… but I also want to thank the author for the time and effort to create such a masterpiece that has brought me… such enjoyment… fueled with nostalgia… and deeper insights than I thought were still available.

[Danny Cerullo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is sports journalism. Or at least what it's supposed to be. Michael Leahy uses baseball, specifically the Los Angeles Dodgers of the 1960's, as a backdrop to look at the state and turmoil of the country throughout the decade. The first half of the book is primarily focused on race. Baseball integrated about a decade and a half before the rest of the country outlawed segregation and both handled it poorly. Both the sport and the country allowed black people greater access but failed to do anything at all about discrimination and ingrained injustice. The second half of the book's focus is on labor. With how much money players get paid today, people tend to forget that for a long time they were basically indentured servants, the owners controlled every aspect of their professional lives. This book details the hard fought bargaining rights and unionizing the players went through and the cycle of abuse and intimidation they received from the owners. The two players the narrative mainly follows are Maury Wills, the black speedster who slowly learned to stand up for himself and what is right, and Wes Parker, the rich, white first baseman who grew up in an abusive home. The contrast and similarities strengthen and enrich the book and show the struggle everyone went through in that tumultuous decade. It's sort of a cliche at this point to say baseball is a metaphor for life, but The Last Innocents proves that the cliche is sometimes true. Baseball has always mirrored American life in perfect detail and will probably continue to do so for a long time to come.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Innocents is a masterpiece of baseball writing, and beautifully highlights the ways in which examinations of baseball can provide a larger sociological and historical understanding of the United States. This book does what all great baseball books can and should do in that it provides an immersion into an era of time and a deeper, interior understanding of the players who inhabited it.

Michael Leahy's clear-eyed, deeply insightful prose style is evocative of the very best of David Halberstam's work thanks in no small part to the fact that he is able to balance the interior lives of the baseball players while also tying them into the larger political and social events and realities of their times. While Koufax and Drysdale understandably stand as looming figures in this book, it is the criminally overlooked Maury Wills who serves as its moral center, and who stands surrounded by Wes Parker, Tommy Davis, Dick Tracewski, Lou Johnson, and Jeff Torborg in the telling of the great run the LA Dodgers had in the decade of the 1960's.

Naturally, civil rights struggles and reforms are a central part of this book, as are player-management struggles, and the beginnings of free agency agitation. I'd recommend this book to true fans of the game or lay-fans who are looking to better understand the intersections between sport and social justice, The Last Innocents is a gripping and highly entertaining read!

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this so much. I wanted to write a review when I first finished it six days ago, but I couldn't find the right words; truthfully I still can't because it is difficult to relay how much The Last Innocents resonated? It was less an overview on how the Dodgers played in the 1960s and more a story on why they did and how they felt doing so. Michael Leahy does such a fantastic job painting the scene that you felt the anger Koufax had during contract negotiations, the isolation Maury Wills suffered outside the clubhouse, the anxiety Wes Parker developed through years and years of emotional neglect and abuse from his parents. Every sentence was impactful. Every paragraph had meaning.

It has been awhile since I read anything – anything at all, honestly! – that touched my heart so much. It sounds silly, I know, that a story about a group of guys older than dirt could have left such an impression, but isn't life filled with surprises? I just – I know I'm talking at length without providing much more detail. Someone just shut me up. I loved pace. I adored how easily it flowed from one period to another. I don't know, I just loved it.

[Paul Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

While advertised as the collision between the 60's and the Dodgers, it's really much more about the collision of players vs. management in a pre-free agency era. So if you're looking for players taking political stands, you'll be sorely disappointed. The players of this era were still limited by the reserve clause, vastly underpaid, largely uneducated, and could hardly imagine that they shouldn't just be happy to get paid to play a game.

That being said, this is a highly entertaining read. We get a detailed look at Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax, and Wes Parker - each a vastly different character w/a fascinating story to tell. If you've never heard of these folks, don't read this book. If you have (even if like me, you weren't old enough to engage w/them 'live'), you're the type that will truly enjoy this book. An honest look at the players' experience of baseball in the 60's.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this book and smiled because of the subject matter concerned the LA Dodgers of the 1960's. (My fathers favorite team. ) This was the Dodgers team of the magnificent Sandy Koufax, Wills, Drysdale, and Wes Parker. This was the last decade before players began to unionize and change the way baseball was run. In the book you begin to see the seeds planted as star players began to question their treatment at the hands of management both on the field and a contract time. Even though the Dodgers were the team of Jackie Robinson, they like most of baseball in that era lagged far behind in the Civil rights era. Incident upon incident was relayed about the segregation the African AMerican Players faced both in the minor leagues and at the spring training sites. A fan of baseball in the 60's will enjoy this book, as it tells the story of baseball and sports in the last age of innocence....

[Shay Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Innocents is a baseball story, sure, but it's much more than that--it's a human story. I knew all of these players in a baseball sense, but was fascinated to "meet" them as human beings. One tends to assume that star athletes are just some sort of super-talented machines whose lives are as smooth as their swings or pitching deliveries, but of course, that's far from the truth. I had no inkling of the struggles and drive of players like Maury Wills or Wes Parker. There was much I could personally relate to, even though I'm far from being any kind of athlete. I came away with a new respect and admiration for Leahy's subjects, and for Leahy himself for his marvelous book.

[Scott Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for fans of the Dodger's dynasty in the 1960s

Dodger Stadium was my favorite place as a young boy. Some of my life's best memories are listening to Vin Scully calling Dodger's action. The early and mid 1960s are the most fascinating period of the team's history and certainly could be considered their glory days. Koufax, Drysdale, Will's and Tommy Davis are covered here in depth and then later in the book, Wes Parker. My only question would be to ask why Willie Davis wasn't mentioned more in the book? Despite that, this was a book I couldn't put down.

[Brandon Behlke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book, one of those books that is hard to put down. Leah's dies an excellent job at weaving in the story of the Dodgers with the story of the world around them. One of the best books that I have read in quite some time.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know when I've enjoyed a book so much. It was in the 60s that I became a serious Dodgers fan, and this book allowed me to revel in nostalgia. Perhaps even more stimulating was learning how the baseball players of that era reflected the racial, labor, and political attitudes of the day.

[Brett Rohlwing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read three books about the Los Angeles Dodgers alone this year. This one was the best. Maury Wills, Wes Parker, Don Drysdale, Willie Davis, and the legend over all of them - Sandy Koufax - come together here to make an amazing team and an engrossing baseball book.

[Steven Yoder · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Innocents is a fascinating book about the Dodgers dynasty of the 1960s. In it, the author focuses on a few players, I assume because a lot of the others are dead. The players that take up most of the pages are Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg and Lou Johnson. A lot of the first half of the book deals with the conditions the black players had to deal with at the Dodgers training camp at Vero Beach where there was segregation in the town but not in Dodgertown. They also had to face segregation in the Spring training town they played in. These stories were mostly told through the eyes of Maury Wills and Lou Johnson. With Sandy Koufax, there was the story of his career finally coming together after 6 years in the majors, the traumatic arthritis that was slowly destroying his arm and what Koufax had to do to be able to pitch and his growing rift with Walter O'Malley and Buzzy Bavasi over salary.
The second big theme that pervades the entire book is the Reserve Clause. During this time in baseball history, the player was completely under the control of the owners. They had to negotiate with their team on their own, could not negotiate with other teams, and were relatively lowly paid because of it. The O'Malley's made millions each year from the team but gave extremely low salaries even to stars like Wills. Jackie Robinson had never earned more than $42,500 in his Dodger days. Duke Snider never earned more than $44,000. After sweeping the Yankees in the 1963 Series, Wills had to sign for $50,000. Beginning in the mid-sixties, Koufax and Don Drysdale, the teams aces, began to work together to force the team to pay them more of what they were worth. Their unprecedented holdout in the spring of 1966 enabled them to get contracts of $125,000 for Koufax and $110,000 for Drysdale. By this time, an obscure labor lawyer named Marvin Miller was working to set up a players union. Torborg would be one of the first player reps for the Dodgers. The Reserve Clause had embittered players against the owners and the revolt against it eventually led to the free agent era.
This book explained the time period well and brought back an era of baseball right before I became a fan.

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

For many years, "The Boys of Summer" has long been regarded as one of the best books about baseball. In my opinion, "The Last Innocents" has unseated Roger Kahn's classic and can claim itself as a truly great baseball book. Ironically, since both books are about the Dodgers (Brooklyn and, in this one, LA), it's almost an unofficial sequel.

"The Last Innocents" is filled with so many variables and components that make it a standout read for any sports fan. It is "Inside Baseball" without the numbers; instead, it delves very deeply into the players, their psyches, and how they are shaped by the turbulence of the sixties. It mostly focuses on African American players like Maury Wills and Lou Johnson, but Leahy also includes Sandy Koufax and Wes Parker to portray how white players suffered many of the same indignities from ownership and the outside world. This multi-faceted book will give readers a clear idea why, in the shadows of the abusive nature of team owners and executives, the sixties were the last decade without free agency. In many ways, that subplot will break your heart.

Leahy's book is well-written and deeply researched. The part that will probably stick with me for a long time is his description of the interaction between several Dodgers and Robert F. Kennedy just before the 1968 California primary. Leahy builds the tension, even though we know what is about to happen. His interviews with gold glove first baseman Wes Parker are particularly enlightening since it seems that Parker treated them as therapy sessions and revealed so much of what plagued him in the 1960s. Highly recommend this book!

[Reid Mccormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The business of baseball has changed completely since the 1960s. Back then, professional baseball players had very little rights; they were powerless subjects of the club owners. There was no free agency or arbitration for players can find their true worth. This arrangement started to crack in the 1960s. Society has a whole was changing, but the first big crack in baseball operations started with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax. At the time, they were the two biggest pitchers in the sport. Knowing there is power in numbers, they held out together for larger contracts. Owner Walter O’Malley and General Buzzie Bavasi, who usually reigned with total authority, were surprisingly powerless. They knew they could not win without the top two pitchers. And though they attempted some old-fashion mudslinging through the media, the O’Malley and Bavasi relented and they signed Drysdale and Koufax.

This story is just a short example of the Dodgers through the 1960s. It was a very successful decade for the boys in blue but it was also a decade of revolution and evolution. Dodger legend Maury Wills was one of the best players of the decade even though he had to fight racism on and off the field, especially in the midst of the Watts Riots. Wes Parker went from wandering youth in Paris to a golden gloved first baseman.

Baseball has always been a great allegory for life. The Dodgers in the 1960s were a great allegory for the turbulent decade that reshaped American history.

If you love Dodger baseball and you are fond of American history, this is the book for you.

[Joseph Hilden · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fabulous history lesson on life in the 60's. Mr Leahy you have accomplished what no other writer has even attempted. This book was so good I took my old sweet time reading it. I'm a life time Dodger fan from 1955 till now and believe this book captured the truth of those tumultuous years. Prior to Marvin Miller the baseball owners had their way with the players. Starting with Curt Flood the players learned how to negotiate on their behalf. Granted now the pendulum has swung to the opposite side and the owners are their own worst enemies. Their lack of control has them competing with each other in ridiculous multi year contracts etc. Television is now running sports by spending unheard of amounts of money for the rights to the various games.. Many of the owners use their % of that money to sign even more ridiculous player contracts while other owners take the money to the bank and refuse to pay players the going rate thus assuring a noncompetitive team. Until the owners learn how to deal with this situation things will continue to evolve. We sports lovers will be forced to pay whatever the TV folks charge until we say enough is enough. Looking back at how the players were treated before Sandy Koufax et al must be shaking their heads at today's sports world.

[Geoffrey Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents an interesting view of the 1960s and the social and economic upheavals of that decade through the eyes of members of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the world of baseball. Leahy has tracked down and interviewed many surviving members of the club, including Maury Wills, Wes Parker, Willie Davis, And Ron Fairly. He has found quotes from other team members, including Sandy Koufax, the late Don Drysdale, and members of the Dodgers management team. It was a world of nearly feudal relations between team owners and their players, the latter group forced to accept modest salaries ( by today’s standards), while the owners kept the lion’s share profits. It was a decade of tumult, from race riots in Watts to the tragedy of Vietnam to the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King that rocked the country. The book also has lots to satisfy the baseball fan—descriptions of pennant races, World Series involving the Dodgers, and the no-hitters and perfect game pitched by the incomparable Sandy Koufax. An extra base hit for sure!