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One Nation Under Baseball: How the 1960s Collided with the National Pastime
One Nation Under Baseball highlights the intersection between American society and America’s pastime during the 1960s, when the hallmarks of the sport—fairness, competition, and mythology—came under scrutiny. John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro examine the events of the era that reshaped the the Koufax and Drysdale million-dollar holdout, the encroachment of television on newspaper coverage, the changing perception of ballplayers from mythic figures to overgrown boys, the arrival of the everyman Mets and their free-spirited fans, and the lawsuit brought against team owners by Curt Flood. One Nation Under Baseball brings to life the seminal figures of the era—including Bob Gibson, Marvin Miller, Tom Seaver, and Dick Young—richly portraying their roles during a decade of flux and uncertainty.
270 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2019
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398 people want to read
About the author
John Florio
7 books40 followersJohn Florio was raised in Flushing, NY. He credits the streets of Queens as one of his earliest influences, along with black-and-white movies, old superhero comics, Sports Illustrated, Humphrey Bogart, and the Hardy Boys.
A fan of pop fiction and creative nonfiction, Florio is the author of the historical crime novels, Sugar Pop Moon and Blind Moon Alley. With Ouisie Shapiro, he has written the nonfiction books: Marked Man, Doomed, War in the Ring, One Nation Under Baseball, and One Punch from the Promised Land. Florio and Shapiro also contribute to The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation, and ESPN.
Florio holds an MFA from the University of Southern Maine, an MA from New York University, an MBA from St. John’s University, and he is pursing a DFA at the University of Glasgow. He currently serves on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA creative writing program at the University of Southern Maine.
Visit John Florio at johnfloriowriter.com.
A fan of pop fiction and creative nonfiction, Florio is the author of the historical crime novels, Sugar Pop Moon and Blind Moon Alley. With Ouisie Shapiro, he has written the nonfiction books: Marked Man, Doomed, War in the Ring, One Nation Under Baseball, and One Punch from the Promised Land. Florio and Shapiro also contribute to The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation, and ESPN.
Florio holds an MFA from the University of Southern Maine, an MA from New York University, an MBA from St. John’s University, and he is pursing a DFA at the University of Glasgow. He currently serves on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA creative writing program at the University of Southern Maine.
Visit John Florio at johnfloriowriter.com.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 23, 2024
The authors have produced a very readable, and roughly chronological account of how the social changes of the 1960s impacted baseball and, to a lesser extent, vice versa. One could argue, although the authors do not, that baseball was out ahead of the rest of America with regard to racial integration. Jackie Robinson was playing for the Dodgers while MLK was still in college. Mays, Aaron and Banks were already amazing NL fans before the Brown v Board of Education decision was made, much less executed. The Civil Rights legislation of the mid-60s was moot in major league ballparks, because they had already been integrated. Even minor league baseball in the South was integrated prior to the rest of Southern society.
The authors do suggest that baseball might also have been in the forefront of American society in embracing the drug culture that came to be synonymous with the sixties, but they do not pursue that point. They do emphasize labor relations, an area in which baseball lagged well behind the rest of American society. Although seeds had been planted during the sixties, the end of that decade still found baseball players bound to their employers in a way from which even most coal miners and sharecroppers has been freed from by 1970.
As with any baseball book the best parts are the colorful player anecdotes and game descriptions, and these are provided by the authors. Their New York roots are evident in that the foibles and triumphs of the Mets are mentioned prominently, while many other teams are mentioned only in passing.
The authors do suggest that baseball might also have been in the forefront of American society in embracing the drug culture that came to be synonymous with the sixties, but they do not pursue that point. They do emphasize labor relations, an area in which baseball lagged well behind the rest of American society. Although seeds had been planted during the sixties, the end of that decade still found baseball players bound to their employers in a way from which even most coal miners and sharecroppers has been freed from by 1970.
As with any baseball book the best parts are the colorful player anecdotes and game descriptions, and these are provided by the authors. Their New York roots are evident in that the foibles and triumphs of the Mets are mentioned prominently, while many other teams are mentioned only in passing.
January 31, 2019
No matter what time frame or era is mentioned, one can usually find a connection to baseball and the political and social culture of the times. That was especially true in the 1960’s and how they intertwine is illustrated in this book by John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro.
Most of the important social issues and important events of the decade and are
mentioned and their connections to baseball are documented as well. There is the
moon landing by the Apollo 11 crew in 1969 – and baseball games were paused to
announce the landing generating cheers and tears from fans. The connection
between the New York Mets and the Beatles was mentioned - or more
appropriately, a certain Mets employee who served the Beatles at their
historic Shea Stadium concert.
The most compelling writing for both society and baseball was saved for the topic of race relations. One of the more poignant stories was shared by Atlanta Braves slugger Henry Aaron when he talked about hearing dishes breaking in a restaurant where he ate a meal. He stated that it was the belief of the owner that no future customers would want to eat off of the same plate from which a black man ate, so the workers were told to break the dishes instead of wash them. There is detailed writing about the important events on this issue such as the March on Washington as well as rioting across the country.
The same attention to detail is paid to baseball issues of the decade and how they connect to the political and social fabric of the country as well. Topics that are covered in this manner include the unionization of the players by Marvin Miller, the publication of “Ball Four” and the portrayal of the game and the challenge to baseball’s reserve clause by Curt Flood. There is also detailed writing about the change in how sports were covered by newspaper writers, in which the stories and questions asked were not always flattering to the players or teams. These reporters, called “chipmunks”, were the writers who revolutionized the way baseball was covered.
At times the book reads more like a history lesson about the 1960’s instead of a baseball book – and that makes it an even better book to read if one is truly interested in how the game is connected to the American mood. This is recommend for those who like reading history books, whether that history is about baseball or about America.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
Most of the important social issues and important events of the decade and are
mentioned and their connections to baseball are documented as well. There is the
moon landing by the Apollo 11 crew in 1969 – and baseball games were paused to
announce the landing generating cheers and tears from fans. The connection
between the New York Mets and the Beatles was mentioned - or more
appropriately, a certain Mets employee who served the Beatles at their
historic Shea Stadium concert.
The most compelling writing for both society and baseball was saved for the topic of race relations. One of the more poignant stories was shared by Atlanta Braves slugger Henry Aaron when he talked about hearing dishes breaking in a restaurant where he ate a meal. He stated that it was the belief of the owner that no future customers would want to eat off of the same plate from which a black man ate, so the workers were told to break the dishes instead of wash them. There is detailed writing about the important events on this issue such as the March on Washington as well as rioting across the country.
The same attention to detail is paid to baseball issues of the decade and how they connect to the political and social fabric of the country as well. Topics that are covered in this manner include the unionization of the players by Marvin Miller, the publication of “Ball Four” and the portrayal of the game and the challenge to baseball’s reserve clause by Curt Flood. There is also detailed writing about the change in how sports were covered by newspaper writers, in which the stories and questions asked were not always flattering to the players or teams. These reporters, called “chipmunks”, were the writers who revolutionized the way baseball was covered.
At times the book reads more like a history lesson about the 1960’s instead of a baseball book – and that makes it an even better book to read if one is truly interested in how the game is connected to the American mood. This is recommend for those who like reading history books, whether that history is about baseball or about America.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
July 7, 2021
1967 was dubbed the Summer of Love, but the following summer, the summer of 1968 was filled with violence, rioting and assassination. The War in Vietnam was dividing families as images of American troops committing atrocities against Asian families were broadcast nightly on the TV News. Civil rights crusaders were being beaten and killed. Robert Kennedy was assassinated moments after giving a victory speech as he won the California Democratic primary. Blood in the streets flowed in Chicago at the Democratic convention. With all of this turmoil it was easy to forget about America's past time: baseball.
But like the nation itself, major league baseball was in its own ideological crisis during the summer of 1968. Termed the “Year of the Pitcher” 1968's baseball season was delayed two days (from April 8th to April 10th) due to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Exactly 21 years earlier, Jackie Roosevelt Robinson had also made “black” history by becoming the first black player to play in the Major Leagues (followed by Larry Doby three months later for the Cleveland Indians). Those were different times though. America was freshly rejuvenated from victory against Hitler in WWII and Americans were looking forward with optimism in 1947. That autumn Jackie Robinson would appear in the first ever televised World Series, as his Brooklyn Dodgers lost 4 games to 3 to Joe DiMaggio's crosstown titans, the New York Yankees. In many ways that kicked off a true golden era for baseball and for America. During the 50s and 60s, as the roads of America were becoming populated with muscle cars, the baseball stadiums of America were being populated with swaggering, slugging, stylish, speedy, athletic hitters: Willie Mays, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, Stan Musial, Duke Snider, Hank Aaron. But by 1968, the muscle cars were all found on the pitching mound. Major league baseball had become dominated by pitching in a way it never had before and it never has since. The “Year of the Pitcher” saw such memorable events as back to back no-hitters (by Gaylord Perry and Ray Washburn). It saw Dodger ace Don Drysdale set a record by pitching 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings. It saw the Mets and Astros play a scoreless game for 24 innings! It saw the average batting average for an American League hitter at an all-time low of just .230. In fact only one American League hitter even batted over .300. Carl Yaztremski of the Red Sox hit .301 to lead the league. Meanwhile Detroit Tigers hurler Denny McLain won 30 games (the last pitcher ever to win 30 games in a season). And perhaps the greatest pitcher of the era, Bob Gibson – who had struck out 26 batters in 27 innings and pitched 3 complete game victories in the 1967 World Series – posted an unbelievable 1.12 era for the 1968 season, as he went 22-9 with 268 strikeouts and 13 shutouts. It seemed like no one in the majors could hit that year – no one except for Pete Rose that is. Rose lead the majors with 210 hits and a .335 batting average. A decade later Rose would set a NL record by having a 44 game hitting streak – second in the majors only to Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak in 1941.
pete rose 1968 photo: Rose, Pete - 2 Rose.jpg
It was obvious that major league baseball needed a change as many fans were becoming bored with sitting on their seats watching two guys play catch, with an occasional hit here and there. Pro football meanwhile was gaining in popularity, with its fast action and hard-hitting play and charasmatic personalities like the fur-coat wearing QB Joe Namath, who boldly predicted and then delivered a victory in Superbowl III for his underdog New York Jets. So before the start of 1969 season the league elected a new commissioner, Bowie Kuhn – a lawyer – and they voted to lower the pitching mound from 15 inches down to 10 inches and then officially shrunk the strike zone as well. After a bump in popularity (thanks in large part to the Miracle Mets of 1969) major league baseball had one last great decade: the 1970s – a decade remembered for domes, astroturf, colorful uniforms (even short pants), wild promotions, a kissing bandit, wife swappers and all kinds of facial hair. A decade that was not tainted by steroid use or daily headlines of ball players who behaved badly (not that ball players didn't behave badly in pre-cable tv times – they did. But that kind of stuff just wasn't part of the narrative at that time and ball players weren't as high-paid, privileged and egotistically at that time). It was the last decade before millionaire ball players. It was the last decade when baseball was still a game, instead of a business.
But like the nation itself, major league baseball was in its own ideological crisis during the summer of 1968. Termed the “Year of the Pitcher” 1968's baseball season was delayed two days (from April 8th to April 10th) due to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Exactly 21 years earlier, Jackie Roosevelt Robinson had also made “black” history by becoming the first black player to play in the Major Leagues (followed by Larry Doby three months later for the Cleveland Indians). Those were different times though. America was freshly rejuvenated from victory against Hitler in WWII and Americans were looking forward with optimism in 1947. That autumn Jackie Robinson would appear in the first ever televised World Series, as his Brooklyn Dodgers lost 4 games to 3 to Joe DiMaggio's crosstown titans, the New York Yankees. In many ways that kicked off a true golden era for baseball and for America. During the 50s and 60s, as the roads of America were becoming populated with muscle cars, the baseball stadiums of America were being populated with swaggering, slugging, stylish, speedy, athletic hitters: Willie Mays, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, Stan Musial, Duke Snider, Hank Aaron. But by 1968, the muscle cars were all found on the pitching mound. Major league baseball had become dominated by pitching in a way it never had before and it never has since. The “Year of the Pitcher” saw such memorable events as back to back no-hitters (by Gaylord Perry and Ray Washburn). It saw Dodger ace Don Drysdale set a record by pitching 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings. It saw the Mets and Astros play a scoreless game for 24 innings! It saw the average batting average for an American League hitter at an all-time low of just .230. In fact only one American League hitter even batted over .300. Carl Yaztremski of the Red Sox hit .301 to lead the league. Meanwhile Detroit Tigers hurler Denny McLain won 30 games (the last pitcher ever to win 30 games in a season). And perhaps the greatest pitcher of the era, Bob Gibson – who had struck out 26 batters in 27 innings and pitched 3 complete game victories in the 1967 World Series – posted an unbelievable 1.12 era for the 1968 season, as he went 22-9 with 268 strikeouts and 13 shutouts. It seemed like no one in the majors could hit that year – no one except for Pete Rose that is. Rose lead the majors with 210 hits and a .335 batting average. A decade later Rose would set a NL record by having a 44 game hitting streak – second in the majors only to Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak in 1941.
pete rose 1968 photo: Rose, Pete - 2 Rose.jpg
It was obvious that major league baseball needed a change as many fans were becoming bored with sitting on their seats watching two guys play catch, with an occasional hit here and there. Pro football meanwhile was gaining in popularity, with its fast action and hard-hitting play and charasmatic personalities like the fur-coat wearing QB Joe Namath, who boldly predicted and then delivered a victory in Superbowl III for his underdog New York Jets. So before the start of 1969 season the league elected a new commissioner, Bowie Kuhn – a lawyer – and they voted to lower the pitching mound from 15 inches down to 10 inches and then officially shrunk the strike zone as well. After a bump in popularity (thanks in large part to the Miracle Mets of 1969) major league baseball had one last great decade: the 1970s – a decade remembered for domes, astroturf, colorful uniforms (even short pants), wild promotions, a kissing bandit, wife swappers and all kinds of facial hair. A decade that was not tainted by steroid use or daily headlines of ball players who behaved badly (not that ball players didn't behave badly in pre-cable tv times – they did. But that kind of stuff just wasn't part of the narrative at that time and ball players weren't as high-paid, privileged and egotistically at that time). It was the last decade before millionaire ball players. It was the last decade when baseball was still a game, instead of a business.
October 26, 2018
A good read on how the nation in the 1960's and how often it collided with baseball. It seemed this book was more on history, not baseball, so you don't have to be a baseball fan to necessarily enjoy this one. The writers do a good job of weaving together important historical situations and events such as the bringing down of Jim Crow laws, the Presidential Elections, Vietnam, etc and what they had to do with baseball at the time. Good stuff and a very quick read at about 200 pages. If you want a recap of each season or each World Series, you don't really get that here. It's more about things like Curt Flood and his taking on the reserve clause, Bobby Kennedy and how he mentioned and knew Don Drysdale, Bill White and him challenging spring training complexes to include all players, not just white players in events.
March 22, 2018
I saw part of "Nine Innings from Ground Zero," Ouisie Shapiro's documentary on the Yankees' playoff run after 9/11. And the way I feel about that documentary is the way I feel about this book -- a story well told, with a somewhat outlandish premise. Just as the exploits of a sports team didn't *really* heal any gaping wounds from one of the worst attacks in American history, so too was baseball not the shining symbol of social upheaval in the 1960's. No section typifies this sentiment more than in a chapter juxtaposing the Phillies' 1964 collapse alongside the Columbia Avenue riot, which happened in North Philadelphia around the same time. "Philadelphians had been hit in the gut again," Shapiro and cowriter John Florio say of the Phillies' blown pennant, "They had lost what had seemed so safely in their grasp. Emotionally, the city was still crawling on Columbia Avenue, struggling to get back on its feet." Perhaps the team's loss had made the City of Brotherly Love that much more depressing, but I highly doubt a World Championship would've fixed all that was wrong along Columbia Avenue.
All told, though, I enjoyed the book. It's a quick, engaging read, and there are some fun elaborations on oft-told anecdotes. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on "new" sportswriting and how coverage of the game necessarily evolved in light of television. However, most subject matter is tackled fairly superficially, not really delving beyond matters as they were contemporarily reported, in spite of 50-some present-day interviews with leading sports figures at the time, and a bibliography that is 10% as long in pages as the text itself. It also feels misleading to call the book "One Nation Under Baseball," when significant sections are devoted to Muhammad Ali, the Beatles, the King and Kennedy assassinations, and other major sociopolitical events as more than just context. This may have been intentional, but they feel like digressions and take away from "baseball" being the uniting thread that pulls it all through. I'd definitely recommend the book to anyone who isn't well-educated in 60s sports culture, or someone who enjoys hearing their favorite stories told in a fresh narrative light. Having not lived through the 60s, I appreciated it; for people who did, though, it might be too much of a rehash if you're not feeling nostalgic. 3***1/2
All told, though, I enjoyed the book. It's a quick, engaging read, and there are some fun elaborations on oft-told anecdotes. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on "new" sportswriting and how coverage of the game necessarily evolved in light of television. However, most subject matter is tackled fairly superficially, not really delving beyond matters as they were contemporarily reported, in spite of 50-some present-day interviews with leading sports figures at the time, and a bibliography that is 10% as long in pages as the text itself. It also feels misleading to call the book "One Nation Under Baseball," when significant sections are devoted to Muhammad Ali, the Beatles, the King and Kennedy assassinations, and other major sociopolitical events as more than just context. This may have been intentional, but they feel like digressions and take away from "baseball" being the uniting thread that pulls it all through. I'd definitely recommend the book to anyone who isn't well-educated in 60s sports culture, or someone who enjoys hearing their favorite stories told in a fresh narrative light. Having not lived through the 60s, I appreciated it; for people who did, though, it might be too much of a rehash if you're not feeling nostalgic. 3***1/2
February 28, 2017
Sports are seen by many people as escape from the real-world and any social and political issues that might exist therein. And while a day at the ballpark can be an immersive experience, the game is shaped by (and occasionally shapes) societal forces. Perhaps no decade demonstrates the particular connection between baseball and American history better than the 1960's, which was a transformational time for both sectors. In One Nation Under Baseball, John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro present a readable and insightful look at this intersection.
The notion that "sports are divorced from politics" is a bit unbelievable in this day and age (and the same largely held true 60 years ago). Rather than beat down on this strawman, Florio and Shapiro chronicle the political and cultural forces that shaped baseball during the 60's, taking the connection as a given and looking instead at how these forces impacted the game. One Nation Under Baseball touches on the major subjects of the period, including integration and civil rights, the elimination of the reserve clause and embiggening of the player's union, and the Vietnam War and the rise of the counter-culture. Each movement is placed in its proper historical context, though sometimes I felt the authors went into too much detail describing some basic information about events such as the March on Washington and suburbanization of America. The reader is likely already pretty familiar with those events and the authors didn't tread upon any new territory. The book does shine in linking baseball to these shifts, such as Hank Aaron's account of listening to restaurant workers smashing the dinnerware he just had eaten on because none of the restaurant's patrons wanted to eat off the plate of a black person.
The book reads like a documentary film (which isn't surprising given that co-author Shapiro has worked on a handful of them), frequently relying on extended passages of quotes from interviews as well as primary source materials. Everything on baseball is well-researched and the book is greatly enriched by drawing from these sources.
One Nation Under Baseball especially shines when discussing the evolution of baseball media. The 1960's marked a transitional time for newspaper writers. Impacted tremendously by the rise of television and an extended newspaper strike in New York, a new generation of writers called "chipmunks" realized that they needed to shift their approach. Now that fans could figure out who won through watching the news, these new scribes (including George Vecsey of The New York Times and Larry Merchant of The Philadelphia Daily News) focused instead on more long-form articles that provided details on the players' personalities and offered deeper analysis. Also benefiting from primarily writing for afternoon papers with later deadlines, these writers really leveraged their access to players and managers and presented a unique perspective that other mediums couldn't match at the time. The decade also saw the first real efforts of some players to pull back the curtain of big-league life and expose the life of a player, warts and all (but especially the warts) to the general public. This reached a fever pitch(er) with the publication of Jim Bouton's diary of his 1969 season, Ball Four, with its tales of beaver-hunting, drinking, and other sordid affairs (at least to his early-70's audience that hadn't yet been desensitized to athletic indiscretions through exposure to countless incriminating athletic Instagram selfies). The old-guard sportswriters of Dick Young and Jimmy Cannon adhered to a code that generally protected players from such scrutiny, and the 1960's marked the start of a movement of player exposure that would only get more and more intimate (see previous parenthetical statement about incriminating Instagram selfies) as time went on.
Overall, One Nation Under Baseball was a quality read that is worth seeking out for anyone fitting into the Venn diagram intersection of being interested in baseball and history. This is the second baseball-related book I've read from University of Nebraska Press this year and both were considerably entertaining and light reads. Definitely seek this out if the premise sounds intriguing to you.
7 / 10
The notion that "sports are divorced from politics" is a bit unbelievable in this day and age (and the same largely held true 60 years ago). Rather than beat down on this strawman, Florio and Shapiro chronicle the political and cultural forces that shaped baseball during the 60's, taking the connection as a given and looking instead at how these forces impacted the game. One Nation Under Baseball touches on the major subjects of the period, including integration and civil rights, the elimination of the reserve clause and embiggening of the player's union, and the Vietnam War and the rise of the counter-culture. Each movement is placed in its proper historical context, though sometimes I felt the authors went into too much detail describing some basic information about events such as the March on Washington and suburbanization of America. The reader is likely already pretty familiar with those events and the authors didn't tread upon any new territory. The book does shine in linking baseball to these shifts, such as Hank Aaron's account of listening to restaurant workers smashing the dinnerware he just had eaten on because none of the restaurant's patrons wanted to eat off the plate of a black person.
The book reads like a documentary film (which isn't surprising given that co-author Shapiro has worked on a handful of them), frequently relying on extended passages of quotes from interviews as well as primary source materials. Everything on baseball is well-researched and the book is greatly enriched by drawing from these sources.
One Nation Under Baseball especially shines when discussing the evolution of baseball media. The 1960's marked a transitional time for newspaper writers. Impacted tremendously by the rise of television and an extended newspaper strike in New York, a new generation of writers called "chipmunks" realized that they needed to shift their approach. Now that fans could figure out who won through watching the news, these new scribes (including George Vecsey of The New York Times and Larry Merchant of The Philadelphia Daily News) focused instead on more long-form articles that provided details on the players' personalities and offered deeper analysis. Also benefiting from primarily writing for afternoon papers with later deadlines, these writers really leveraged their access to players and managers and presented a unique perspective that other mediums couldn't match at the time. The decade also saw the first real efforts of some players to pull back the curtain of big-league life and expose the life of a player, warts and all (but especially the warts) to the general public. This reached a fever pitch(er) with the publication of Jim Bouton's diary of his 1969 season, Ball Four, with its tales of beaver-hunting, drinking, and other sordid affairs (at least to his early-70's audience that hadn't yet been desensitized to athletic indiscretions through exposure to countless incriminating athletic Instagram selfies). The old-guard sportswriters of Dick Young and Jimmy Cannon adhered to a code that generally protected players from such scrutiny, and the 1960's marked the start of a movement of player exposure that would only get more and more intimate (see previous parenthetical statement about incriminating Instagram selfies) as time went on.
Overall, One Nation Under Baseball was a quality read that is worth seeking out for anyone fitting into the Venn diagram intersection of being interested in baseball and history. This is the second baseball-related book I've read from University of Nebraska Press this year and both were considerably entertaining and light reads. Definitely seek this out if the premise sounds intriguing to you.
7 / 10
December 5, 2017
A nice fun read about baseball and the 1960s. Read this and learn (or be reminded) about shifting demographics leading to expansion, the push for free agency from the Drysdale/Koufax holdout through Marvin Miller, the integration of spring training and America's general desegregation, the Miracle Mets and declining Yankees, and MLB's response to MLK's assassination.
I did find the book a bit heavy on civil rights/race relations stuff, but that's probably because I'm a professor who specializes in African American history. Some readers probably have a lot to learn from this material, but it might also put some people off because a lot of it isn't directly related to sports. The same can be said for lengthy excerpts of Robert Kennedy speeches and discussion of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
The authors definitely have a bias, but they don't hide it - right there at the top of the acknowledgements is a tribute to civil rights and anti-war activists who brought change to the National Mall and baseball stadiums.
A lengthier epilogue that more strongly placed the 60s as a cultural turning point would have improved this piece. Mentioning reactions to Hank Aaron's 1974 home run, the "hairs v squares" World Series, and the general awesomeness of 1970s uniforms and hair styles would have tied it all together nicely.
I did find the book a bit heavy on civil rights/race relations stuff, but that's probably because I'm a professor who specializes in African American history. Some readers probably have a lot to learn from this material, but it might also put some people off because a lot of it isn't directly related to sports. The same can be said for lengthy excerpts of Robert Kennedy speeches and discussion of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
The authors definitely have a bias, but they don't hide it - right there at the top of the acknowledgements is a tribute to civil rights and anti-war activists who brought change to the National Mall and baseball stadiums.
A lengthier epilogue that more strongly placed the 60s as a cultural turning point would have improved this piece. Mentioning reactions to Hank Aaron's 1974 home run, the "hairs v squares" World Series, and the general awesomeness of 1970s uniforms and hair styles would have tied it all together nicely.
August 4, 2017
I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
This is a book which the "stick to sports" crowd will hate, but certainly should read to gain some perspective. Baseball and all sports are a form of escape for us the fan, but at the same time, baseball is a job, a glimpse at the society in which we all reside, influenced heavily by the outside world and a focal point for change. What is going on off the field affects what is going on on the field. The social and political climate do have an influence on the game and its players, and as such, this influence should be addressed.
The authors did an amazing job of layering baseball with society and the several momentous events occurring across the country in the 1960's. The Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., landing on the moon, the Vietnam War, presidential elections, baseball economics and the western expansion of baseball are just a few of the many events of the 1960's which shaped how baseball was played and perceived. In fact, if you were to pick up a history book covering the United States during this time period, there would be very few events in the history book which was not at least casually addressed in this book, and this inclusion only heightened the authors' abilities to demonstrate their point.
For the pure baseball nerd, there is still plenty of stats and game action to whet their appetite, these events are presented in a more complex and meaningful manner. Some of baseball's biggest stars are covered in this book, and each one has a unique response to society in the 1960's. From Sandy Koufax becoming a Jewish hero to Bob Gibson's personal vendetta towards the assassination of MLK and RFK, to Hank Aaron altering his approach at the plate to appease the racist fans in the south, each player is examined and presented as they were shaped by the world. This book did not just focus on one event of the decade, but rather was an exploration of the totality of the decade and how each individual event intertwined with baseball and its stars, altering society and the sport along the way.
This is a book which the "stick to sports" crowd will hate, but certainly should read to gain some perspective. Baseball and all sports are a form of escape for us the fan, but at the same time, baseball is a job, a glimpse at the society in which we all reside, influenced heavily by the outside world and a focal point for change. What is going on off the field affects what is going on on the field. The social and political climate do have an influence on the game and its players, and as such, this influence should be addressed.
The authors did an amazing job of layering baseball with society and the several momentous events occurring across the country in the 1960's. The Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., landing on the moon, the Vietnam War, presidential elections, baseball economics and the western expansion of baseball are just a few of the many events of the 1960's which shaped how baseball was played and perceived. In fact, if you were to pick up a history book covering the United States during this time period, there would be very few events in the history book which was not at least casually addressed in this book, and this inclusion only heightened the authors' abilities to demonstrate their point.
For the pure baseball nerd, there is still plenty of stats and game action to whet their appetite, these events are presented in a more complex and meaningful manner. Some of baseball's biggest stars are covered in this book, and each one has a unique response to society in the 1960's. From Sandy Koufax becoming a Jewish hero to Bob Gibson's personal vendetta towards the assassination of MLK and RFK, to Hank Aaron altering his approach at the plate to appease the racist fans in the south, each player is examined and presented as they were shaped by the world. This book did not just focus on one event of the decade, but rather was an exploration of the totality of the decade and how each individual event intertwined with baseball and its stars, altering society and the sport along the way.
June 14, 2017
John Florio has taken a unique perspective on both baseball and the 1960s and combined them into one great book. He does this via the baseball metaphor and goes into some length on the integration of the game. His version in the book not only tells a compelling story but provides a great analogy to the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. The part of the book dealing with the move to the west is tied into the move to suburbia as well as the population shift to the south and west. The elimination of the reserve clause is tied directly to the emergence of the individual and the creation of new opportunities and an improved game. The telling of the great baseball stories is well done so we don't forget how great for the game the 1960s were. The only thing I would have liked to have seen is more on the unknown commissioner Spike Eckert.
A new and fresh taste on the 1960s and baseball history. A must read for baseball fans, historians and both.
A new and fresh taste on the 1960s and baseball history. A must read for baseball fans, historians and both.
February 4, 2022
Interesting book about the cultural changes of the 60s and how they conflicted with the perpetually staid sport of baseball. I think the authors spent too much time on stuff like Ali and the Beatles and other things that didn't directly deal with baseball. I thought they should have followed through with Bill White's problems in spring training with the Cardinals by noting that Cardinals owner Gussie Busch bought an entire hotel in St. Petersburg for the entire team to stay in no matter what race they were when Xurt Flood told him the Black players had sub par housing. I liked how they told the tale of Dick Allen who was a poster child for talented players who had problems because of their race.
July 25, 2021
A great narrative of the intersection between baseball and the social upheavals of the 1960s, an era that started with Black players needed to find alternative living arrangements in the still segregated south and culminating in the day that Danny Murtaugh fielded an all Black/Latin team for the first time in history. In 200 well-written pages, you'll meet baseball players, rock stars, politicians and other athletes who were fighting to redefine our culture, and how baseball adopted and where it failed such as Bowie Kuhn's hamfisted effort to stop the publication of Ball Four. My only criticism was that it passed by too quickly.
March 7, 2018
I chose to read this book because I enjoy baseball and the 1960s is one of my favorite time periods in history. From this book I learned a ton, especially backstories on things such as: why Bob Gibson seemed to be so angry and the iconic photos from the meeting between The Beatles and Cassius Clay. It also provided insight as to how slow integration continued to be, even after Jackie Robinson began playing for the Dodgers.
If you are at all a baseball fan or a history buff, you will enjoy this book.
If you are at all a baseball fan or a history buff, you will enjoy this book.
January 28, 2020
A decently entertaining and informative series of intertwining vignettes about the intersection of 1960s social and pop cultural movements with the world of professional baseball. None go on too long to bore, though it sometimes feels like the book pops around a bit randomly between players/teams/historical events. It certainly does a lot to make you realize how mistreated players were back in the day and toward the end, provides some background on the lawsuits and scandals that paved the way for the modern baseball free agency system.
March 2, 2022
Overall, an interesting work that attempted to place baseball in context of the tumultuous time that was the 1960s. Issues about race, labor, generational divisions and the overall state of the game come out in this work. There is not a lot new in the pages of this work that other volumes hadn't covered before. Still, for one that might not be as familiar with the history of baseball or the actions of that decade, this is a solid work. It is not too baseball-y, nor too historical. A decent read, but probably not one revisited after the first glance.
April 13, 2021
This is a fascinating book about the turbulent sixties, with baseball woven into the thread. I learned so much about how baseball was affected by the events of the sixties, from strikes to riots. There is much in the book about individual players, black and white, and their struggles with owners and fans. This is a book I will probably read again.
August 2, 2017
This book is structurally and stylistically weak, and offers only a shallow engagement with its subject matter. It really seems like the effort of an ambitious fourth-grader. It would make a good exhibit in a demonstration of the degradation of our literacy, or perhaps of our culture in general.
May 4, 2017
Quick introduction to the intersection of social justice movements, politics, and baseball during the 1960s.
June 25, 2017
Piecing together front page and sports page headlines across the sixties, the authors interlace a story of changing times telling how baseball both influenced and followed those changes.
October 3, 2017
I liked how the authors tied baseball and cultural issues together and how they played a part in society. It brought in different angles that was good.
July 11, 2020
If you like your sports intertwined with social and political realities, this is a great book....
July 31, 2021
3/5: An informative look into baseball and the turmoil of the 1960’s.
October 11, 2024
A good overall coverage of the 1960's with the impact of cultural and political events that changed the game of baseball. Very enjoyable read.
April 10, 2017
Two of my favorite subjects, baseball and the Sixties combine in a book that's probably better for newcomers than for those familiar with the material. It's really more about sports in general, with significant attention given to Muhammad Ali and a bit to football and basketball. Mostly it sticks pretty closer to the relatively well known stories, the majority having to do with race. Fair amount of attention to the sportswriting culture that brought old school sportswriters into conflict with New Journalists. The style's chatty journalist. Not bad not great.
April 27, 2017
I grew up about 200 miles due west of Minneapolis. When I was young, a weekend family trip to watch the Minnesota Twins was almost a ritual. Like any elementary school boy, the players were among my first idols. Pitcher Jim "Mudcat" Grant was one my my favorites.
Given my age, I assumed his nickname had something to do an affinity for catfishing. His lore dates it back to 1958, his first year with the Cleveland Indians. He actually got the name four years earlier when he entered the minor leagues. Some white teammates began calling him "Mudcat," saying he had the face of a Mississipi mudcat.
Racism was generally tolerated in the 1950s and baseball, "America's Pastime," was no exception. Yet civil rights would be a core subject for the sport as the country entered the Sixties. John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro proffer that baseball was a microcosm of America during that time. Their book, One Nation Under Baseball: How the 1960s Collided with the National Pastime , takes a chronological approach in seeking to portray the influence the decade had on baseball and vice versa. Often exploring political and cultural issues as much as baseball itself, they believe that by the end of the 1960s the sport "resembled a new America."
Although Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line in 1947, the vast majority of spring training camps were in Florida, where Jim Crow laws prevailed. Housing and even seating in the ballparks were segregated. It was not until 1964 that every team had integrated housing for spring training in Florida. One Nation Under Baseball lays out who and what brought the values and objectives of the civil rights movement to the forefront in baseball. Integrated housing for ballplayers wasn’t the sole impact. The Atlanta Braves became the Deep South's first major league baseball team when it joined the National League in 1966. To help obtain the franchise, the city prohibited segregated seating and facilities at sporting events. As one writer later observed, such events were "many people, black and white, first shared public restrooms, sat in the same sections ... or drank at the same fountain."
Yet racism wasn’t eradicated. The Minnesota Twins, originally the Washington Senators before owner Calvin Griffith relocated the team in 1961, was the last to desegregate spring training. In speaking to a Twin Cities service group years later about his decision to move the team to Minnesota, Griffith said black people didn't go to ball games and the Twins "came here because you've got good, hardworking, white people here."
Such comments also reveal the increasing divide between the owners' 1950s thinking and the players. In addition to civil rights, the generation gap was also an element of how baseball and the country mirrored each other in the Sixties.
The conflict was perhaps most personified by Bowie Kuhn, legal counsel for the owners and later Commissioner of Baseball, and Marvin Miller, who became executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association when it was recognized as a labor union in 1966. Before Miller negotiated baseball's first collective bargaining agreement in 1968, the minimum player salary was $7,000. The agreement would boost that more than 40 percent, just one step in the decade's road to ending owners dictating player salaries.
Florio and Shapiro, who also wrote One Punch From the Promised Land: Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, and the Myth of the Heavyweight Title , detail the role of the so-called "reserve clause" in the standard player's contract. The clause essentially allowed a team to renew a player's contract year after year if it didn't sell or trade him to another team. Unless a player could negotiate a raise, his choice was to accept the contract offered by the team or quit, giving owners an overwhelming advantage in contract negotiations and enabling them to keep salaries low. The control it granted over a player’s life led some players to view it as a form of salary. One Nation Under Baseball examines the efforts of players like Dodger pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, who collectively held out before the 1966 season, and Curt Flood, who would sit out a year and later file but lose a lawsuit challenging the reserve clause. Although the reserve clause did not die until 1975, these were the crucial steps that would lead to players being able to control their own destiny through free agency.
The book also uses Jim Bouton's Ball Four to exemplify the establishment vs. anti-establishment sentiment that grew in baseball. Although not published until June 1970, the book was a tell-all written during the pitcher’s time with the New York Yankees and Seattle Pilots in 1969. The book detailed real life in the majors, including teams providing amphetamines to players and players drinking and womanizing. Believing the book was a harmful kiss and tell, Kuhn launched a campaign to discredit Bouton. After an excerpt was published in Look magazine, Kuhn met with Bouton and Miller, wanting the pitcher him to issue a statement saying the tales in the book were exaggerated. Bouton refused. The book would spend 17 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and rank as one of the New York Public Library's Books of the Century.
Clearly, the Sixties changed baseball and One Nation Under Baseball uses extensive research and sources to survey the time. The bibliography is 15 single-spaced pages, not counting nearly 60 personal interviews the authors conducted. At times, though, it feels as if Florio and Shapiro couldn’t quite decide whether to focus on baseball or social history. Granted, the book provides crucial information to demonstrate the role of the civil rights movement, the rock generation and politics in changing baseball. Yet tangential details abound, more than is perhaps necessary for the narrative. For example, there are lengthy excerpts from speeches by John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, stories of the Beatles in America, and accounts of Muhammad Ali's fights and misfortunes. Certainly, these are part of the olio of the Sixties but the extent of detail overwhelms their correlation to the subject.
For those with some familiarity with 1960s baseball and its personalities, One Nation Under Baseball is a reflective and entertaining read. Likewise, those with a general interest in baseball history and the 1960s will find the book useful. Others, particularly those looking for a sharply focused analysis of the evolution of baseball during the time, may be disappointed.
What was really happening in baseball, and at arenas everywhere, was the sensibilities of the rock generation infiltrating sports.
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)
Given my age, I assumed his nickname had something to do an affinity for catfishing. His lore dates it back to 1958, his first year with the Cleveland Indians. He actually got the name four years earlier when he entered the minor leagues. Some white teammates began calling him "Mudcat," saying he had the face of a Mississipi mudcat.
Racism was generally tolerated in the 1950s and baseball, "America's Pastime," was no exception. Yet civil rights would be a core subject for the sport as the country entered the Sixties. John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro proffer that baseball was a microcosm of America during that time. Their book, One Nation Under Baseball: How the 1960s Collided with the National Pastime , takes a chronological approach in seeking to portray the influence the decade had on baseball and vice versa. Often exploring political and cultural issues as much as baseball itself, they believe that by the end of the 1960s the sport "resembled a new America."
Although Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line in 1947, the vast majority of spring training camps were in Florida, where Jim Crow laws prevailed. Housing and even seating in the ballparks were segregated. It was not until 1964 that every team had integrated housing for spring training in Florida. One Nation Under Baseball lays out who and what brought the values and objectives of the civil rights movement to the forefront in baseball. Integrated housing for ballplayers wasn’t the sole impact. The Atlanta Braves became the Deep South's first major league baseball team when it joined the National League in 1966. To help obtain the franchise, the city prohibited segregated seating and facilities at sporting events. As one writer later observed, such events were "many people, black and white, first shared public restrooms, sat in the same sections ... or drank at the same fountain."
Yet racism wasn’t eradicated. The Minnesota Twins, originally the Washington Senators before owner Calvin Griffith relocated the team in 1961, was the last to desegregate spring training. In speaking to a Twin Cities service group years later about his decision to move the team to Minnesota, Griffith said black people didn't go to ball games and the Twins "came here because you've got good, hardworking, white people here."
Such comments also reveal the increasing divide between the owners' 1950s thinking and the players. In addition to civil rights, the generation gap was also an element of how baseball and the country mirrored each other in the Sixties.
The conflict was perhaps most personified by Bowie Kuhn, legal counsel for the owners and later Commissioner of Baseball, and Marvin Miller, who became executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association when it was recognized as a labor union in 1966. Before Miller negotiated baseball's first collective bargaining agreement in 1968, the minimum player salary was $7,000. The agreement would boost that more than 40 percent, just one step in the decade's road to ending owners dictating player salaries.
Florio and Shapiro, who also wrote One Punch From the Promised Land: Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, and the Myth of the Heavyweight Title , detail the role of the so-called "reserve clause" in the standard player's contract. The clause essentially allowed a team to renew a player's contract year after year if it didn't sell or trade him to another team. Unless a player could negotiate a raise, his choice was to accept the contract offered by the team or quit, giving owners an overwhelming advantage in contract negotiations and enabling them to keep salaries low. The control it granted over a player’s life led some players to view it as a form of salary. One Nation Under Baseball examines the efforts of players like Dodger pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, who collectively held out before the 1966 season, and Curt Flood, who would sit out a year and later file but lose a lawsuit challenging the reserve clause. Although the reserve clause did not die until 1975, these were the crucial steps that would lead to players being able to control their own destiny through free agency.
The book also uses Jim Bouton's Ball Four to exemplify the establishment vs. anti-establishment sentiment that grew in baseball. Although not published until June 1970, the book was a tell-all written during the pitcher’s time with the New York Yankees and Seattle Pilots in 1969. The book detailed real life in the majors, including teams providing amphetamines to players and players drinking and womanizing. Believing the book was a harmful kiss and tell, Kuhn launched a campaign to discredit Bouton. After an excerpt was published in Look magazine, Kuhn met with Bouton and Miller, wanting the pitcher him to issue a statement saying the tales in the book were exaggerated. Bouton refused. The book would spend 17 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and rank as one of the New York Public Library's Books of the Century.
Clearly, the Sixties changed baseball and One Nation Under Baseball uses extensive research and sources to survey the time. The bibliography is 15 single-spaced pages, not counting nearly 60 personal interviews the authors conducted. At times, though, it feels as if Florio and Shapiro couldn’t quite decide whether to focus on baseball or social history. Granted, the book provides crucial information to demonstrate the role of the civil rights movement, the rock generation and politics in changing baseball. Yet tangential details abound, more than is perhaps necessary for the narrative. For example, there are lengthy excerpts from speeches by John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, stories of the Beatles in America, and accounts of Muhammad Ali's fights and misfortunes. Certainly, these are part of the olio of the Sixties but the extent of detail overwhelms their correlation to the subject.
For those with some familiarity with 1960s baseball and its personalities, One Nation Under Baseball is a reflective and entertaining read. Likewise, those with a general interest in baseball history and the 1960s will find the book useful. Others, particularly those looking for a sharply focused analysis of the evolution of baseball during the time, may be disappointed.
What was really happening in baseball, and at arenas everywhere, was the sensibilities of the rock generation infiltrating sports.
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)
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