The New Boys of Summer

October 9, 2017
Baseball historian Hensler (The American League in Transition, 1965–1975) delivers an excellent examination of the ways that America’s national pastime was challenged by the cultural changes affecting the country in 1968 and 1969. Each chapter explores individual topics that delineate how baseball “ended its mid-twentieth-century stodginess” and moved into a “modern era punctuated by other changes that were radical in nature.” Among these topics are the expansion of the American and National Leagues to new cities such as Kansas City, intended to compete with the growing popularity of football; the influence Marvin Miller had as director of the Major League Baseball Players Association in leading “baseball’s labor force” into a new era of financial gains; the rise of computer technology (such as the IBM System/360) to enhance and change the use of statistics; and the ways that advocates for racial equality pushed management to increase the presence of minority players on MLB teams. Hensler’s book is an enlightening look at the many ways baseball became the game we know today.

September 15, 2017
The decade that ended in 1969 was one of the most compelling in American history, from an ongoing battle for civil rights to an unpopular war to a string of political assassinations. Baseball was affected by all of those events, and there were changes to the game itself. Hensler, a baseball historian, explores in detail the transformation of the game in a revolutionary decade. The league expanded by 50 percent, from two eight-team leagues to two six-team divisions in each league. The players' union, under Marvin Miller, was coming of age, and there was a boom in new stadiums. Late in the decade, pitchers dominated the game, prompting rule changes designed to give the hitters a chance (lowering the pitching mound and narrowing the strike zone). Hensler takes readers through it all with an easy narrative style and a real feel for re-creating the frenetic atmosphere of the times. An excellent baseball history that will appeal to old and new fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)