George Shuba
Preacher Roe
Carl Furillo
Billy Cox
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
The Boys of Summer
I've had this copy of "The Boys of Summer" probably from around the time it came out. One of the great things about books is that they wait for you. I did read this once upon a time. I also have had books on my shelves that I didn't read for the first time until many years later. There are books now that sit unread. Books are patient. "I'm here when you're ready", they seem to say. Well, I was ready to read this one again. When I first picked it up I was like the players in the first half of the book. Now I'm even older than the Dodgers when we meet them in the second half. It's a different experience but I know I enjoyed it the first time and and enjoyed it again. I think Bill Veeck's blurb on the back cover is perfect.
I'm not very organized so it wasn't easy but I did my best to find a card for each of the players Roger Kahn visited in the second half of the book. For those I didn't have or couldn't find (I know I have a 1960 Carl Furillo somewhere) I inserted a photo from Getty Images. Here they are in order they appeared in the book.
Probably my all-time favorite book.
ReplyDeleteI read it for the first time in college. It was weird at the start -- what is this? It took me awhile to sort it out. By the time I was halfway through the second part of the book, I was sobbing.