1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever

by Bill Madden

Overview

Set against the backdrop of a racially charged nation and a still predominantly all-white major league landscape, seven years removed from Jackie Robinson s breaking of the color line, "1954 "tells the story of the first time in major league history that two black players led their respective teams to the World Series."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306823695
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	03/10/2015
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Bill Madden is the author of several books about the Yankees, including the New York Times bestseller Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball. For more than 30 years, he has covered the Yankees and Major League Baseball for the New York Daily News. Madden is also the 2010 recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame's J.G. Taylor Spink Award. He lives in New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Prologue 1

Chapter 1 Power to the (Other) People 9

Chapter 2 Bill Veeck Leaves the Stage in the American League's Winds of Change 21

Chapter 3 Waiting for Willie 35

Chapter 4 Dodger Blues 55

Chapter 5 Ernie and Hank 69

Chapter 6 Casey's Spring of Discontent 87

Chapter 7 Leo's Midas Touch 107

Chapter 8 Indian Summer 127

Chapter 9 A Tree Dies (Slowly) in Brooklyn 155

Chapter 10 Twilight of the Gods 187

Chapter 11 Dem Wuz Some Gints 209

Chapter 12 Dusty and "The Catch" 229

Epilogue 253

Acknowledgements 263

Bibliography 267

Credits 269

Index 271

Editorial Reviews

"In 1954, many of baseball's changing dynamics and prominent personalities converged. In his revealing and carefully researched look at that pivotal season, Hall of Fame baseball writer Bill Madden makes it clear why 1954 should be regarded as one of the most significant years in the game's history."
—Bob Costas

"1954 is a book that illustrates why my friend Bill Madden is enshrined in the writers' wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and one that should be read by all who love the game and its history. This is the year when baseball and the country truly found out, against the backdrop of Brown vs. Board of Education, the true and lasting significance of Jackie Robinson breaking the color line seven years before. This is about Jackie, and Willie Mays, and Henry Aaron, and about Willie's '54 Giants team, a civil rights experiment all by itself. It is an important book Madden was supposed to write, and one you will want to read."
—Mike Lupica

From the Publisher