The Sputnik Season

1957 was not just the time of the Brooklyn Dodgers' last National League pennant race. It was also the year when everything changed in American baseball. The major leagues voted to expand to California. A new generation of Black players rose to stardom - Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Ernie Banks, Jim Gilliam, Bill White, Don Newcombe, Minnie Minoso, and Curt Flood. The World Champion NY Yankees of Mickey, Yogi and Whitey still dominated the American League, but after 1957 New York City baseball would never be the same. There would not be another New York - New York World Series for more than forty years.'The Sputnik Season' tells the story of an historic pennant race through lively detailed accounts of the final, bitterly contested twenty-two games played between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers, accounts that will fascinate fans of all eras. 1957 was the final year of the annual intra-city brawl between the two teams. It was one to remember and savor. The clubs played each other eleven times at the grand old Polo Grounds, ten games at iconic Ebbets Field and one mean-spirited event - Marv Grissom pitching against Don Newcombe - at rickety Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. The season would end with one of the most thrilling World Series ever.Baseball historian Noel Hynd colorfully recreates a unique National League baseball season. He escorts the reader back to mid-century America and invites everyone to be present for one of the greatest seasons ever played. Almost every National League game featured at least one future Hall of Famer. The '57 World Series featured nine. Venture back in time and enjoy the days of Chevrolets with big fins, do-wop music, Ike, The Honeymooners, air raid drills, Elvis, Willie, Mickey and The Duke. 'The Sputnik Season' of 1957 was an extraordinary unforgettable time. *NEW YORK BASEBALL'S GOLDEN ERA - 1903 THROUGH 1957 Praise for Noel Hynd's books in this series: > THE GIANTS OF THE POLO GROUNDS - "A compelling and comprehensive look at a great ball club.... Editor's Choice." - NY Times. "Grandly digressive! The owners, stars like Mathewson and Mays, various eccentric players are all here in this vivid history by 'Sports Illustrated' contributor Hynd." - Publishers' Weekly"Fans of all ages will treasure the crazy quilt text for its stylish recall of the game's summer roots." - Kirkus Library Journal"Just plain enjoyable as baseball is supposed to be." - The Pennsylvania Gazette> THE FINAL GAME AT EBBETS FIELD - Winner 2020 SABR Award for Best New Work on the Brooklyn Dodgers.> MARQUARD AND SEELEY - "Hynd has captured the spirit of the times in this quaint and entertaining sidelight to sports and show-biz history." Publishers' Weekly*"Many children work hard to please their parents, but what I truly longed for was good times that were about us, not about me. That is the real hole the Dodgers filled in my life." - Gil Hodges*"Everything about the Polo Grounds was special, right down to the looped iron chains that separated each sector of box seats from its neighbor and could burn your bare arm on a summer afternoon if you weren't careful. Far along each outfield wall, a sloping mini-roof projected outward, imparting a thin wedge of shadow for the bullpen crews sitting there: they looked like cows sheltering beside a pasture shed in August." - Roger Angell, 'Let Me Finish' (2007)*"Along came Willie Mays... The era of Dark, Lockman, Westrum, Antonelli, Maglie and Wilhelm. Games that wound up 15-11 and 10-8 because of concrete hard diamonds, the wind and small ballparks." - Al Rosen*"We'd look into the Giants' dugout and see all that orange and black. It was enough to make you even hate Halloween." - Duke Snider