Customer Rating: 
Summary: A memorable book for a memorable season
Comment: The research that obviously went into this book would earn the
admiration of any historian, but it's the vivid, engaging writing that makes "Hammerin Hank..." such an appealing read. For fans who remember the 1973 season, and those who weren't even born yet, this book paints a picture with details and a story that live up to the title's hype. The effects of many of the events from that season are still being felt today.
This was the year that George Steinbrenner took over the Yankees, and 35 years later the Boss, and now his son, continue to loom over the game. In the book, we read the type of Steinbrenner tale - him demanding that three Yankees get haircuts - that made him such an easy target, yet Rosengren also shows the lengths he'd go to to make the Yankees a winner, no matter the cost.
The DH went into effect in '73, and years before chicks dug the long ball, Rosengren shows how Oakland owner Charlie Finley pushed for more offense in the game, believing it would bring fans back. The DH rule led Carl Yazstremski to say, "It's legalized manslaughter," because pitchers no longer had to worry about suffering the consequences if they beaned an opposing hitter.
1973 was Willie Mays's final season. Today, whenever an older athlete struggles, it's almost become cliche to say that he should retire because we don't want to see him "stumbling around like Willie Mays." Rosengren details exactly what happened to the baseball legend, and how he struggled through his final days on the field.
The book tells the big stories, as well as the memorable smaller ones - like Gaylord Perry's spitball-throwing antics, and the tale of the two pitchers who switched lives, including wives. The story of the champion A's, one of the game's great dynasties, is perfectly profiled, as is the rise of their superstar, Reggie Jackson. And, of course, throughout the book is the tale of Hank Aaron's pursuit of Babe Ruth's home run record. He'd finish one dinger short of Ruth, and we're there every step with Aaron - from the hate mail (275 letters a day at one point), to the remarkable fact that only 1,362 fans saw Aaron's 711th career homer.
For those who might question whether 1973 really was the year that changed baseball forever, all they have to do is read this book, and they'll be fully convinced that it did.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The last good season
Comment: I've always been fascinated with the 1973 baseball season, mostly because I was born hours after the conclusion of Game 2 of the World Series. I've been a Mets fan most of my life and always found it darkly funny that I was born during a year they lost the Series.
There have been a run of books in the past several years by authors celebrating individual baseball seasons: 1964 and 1949 (David Halberstam), 1975 and 1966 (Tom Adelman), 1908 (Cait Murphy); each one has a hook about what makes that year special. John Rosengren's concept for 1973 is that it's a transition year for baseball, a year of firsts and lasts: the first year of the designated hitter, and the first year of George Steinbrenner's ownership of the Yankees; the last year of Willie Mays' career and the first year of Reggie Jackson's superstardom. It was also the year Hank Aaron did not break Babe Ruth's all-time home run record, but any book with Aaron on the cover is likely to do well this year, thanks to Barry Bonds-inspired backlash.
"Hammerin' Hank" is an easy read, as chapters alternate between the book's five principal characters: Willie, Reggie, Hank, George, and Orlando Cepeda (the first great DH in his last great season). Interesting that all the players involved are minorities: three essentially winding up their careers, and one just beginning. Much attention is paid to the AL West and NL East division races, all three playoff series and the All-Star game. As with Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, some politics are intercut as well: 1973 was a Watergate year as well as a watershed year (and wouldn't you know Steinbrenner was wrapped up in that too).
I only had a few quibbles with the book. There were some odd language choices, with Rosengren inserting some vulgarities in his prose that probably didn't belong. He also dropped in a few Spanish phrases to illustrate Orlando Cepeda's thought processes, over which your mileage will vary. There may have been an overreliance on the author's sourcing to biographies and the Sporting News: the short list of players interviewed for the book included none of the title characters. At least I couldn't find too many obvious factual errors, apart from some typos (after the chapter about the A's-Orioles ALCS, it's written in the next chapter that the A's played the Reds).
On the whole this was a quick but detailed read about a transitional year for MLB: the year of the DH, the year Reggie became a "hot dog", the year George started doing what he does best: tick people off. It's mostly a valentine to baseball and its endless capacity for re-invention. The only real villain of the book is Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and I certainly don't have a problem with that.
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