Synopses & Reviews
"[Kahn is] a master storyteller . . .
October Men sprawls like a great ballpark conversation, encompassing the big and the small, the old and the new, the sacred and the profane."-
The New York Times Book Review On the morning of October 2, 1978, the Yankees, once fourteen games behind, found themselves tied for first place with the Boston Red Sox. They capped one of the most thrilling comebacks in baseball history by defeating the Red Sox that afternoon in a game that many still remember as the greatest ever played. Transporting us into the midst of this unforgettable team, Roger Kahn weaves the first in-depth account of the legendary season of '78 and renders the story an American classic.
"It's not a nice story but a gripping one. And Kahn tells it with his customary verve."-Los Angeles Times
"Kahn's glittering group portrait paints the Yanks as both goats and heroes, and they are vividly, engagingly, enragingly human in both roles . . . He can epitomize a player with a single swing of the pen."-Time
Widely acclaimed as the greatest baseball writer of his generation, Roger Kahn is the author of sixteen books, including The Boys of Summer, named by Sports Illustrated as the best baseball book of all time. He lives in Stone Ridge, New York.
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"High, hard and tight."(Toronto Star)
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"Good news for fans of the game, and of words." (Washington Post)
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"History, humor, and drama, but the historical research and psychological analysis give it a place in every baseball fan's collection." Dallas Morning News
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"Kahn has the almost unfair gift of easy, graceful writing combined with an unmatched institutional memory." Boston Herald
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"Insightful and compelling. With crisp, smart writing, he makes the case that the team was a less-than-harmonic convergence." Chicago Sun-Times
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"Kahn supplies a behind-the-scenes look at what made that team tick but not explode." --Dallas Morning News
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"High, hard and tight." --Hartford Courant
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"October Men seems effortlessly written, like all of Mr. Kahns books. . . . A compelling story." --Toronto Star
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PRAISE FOR OCTOBER MEN
“Not content merely to rehash the details of Bucky Dents home run,
October Men instead sprawls like a great ballpark conversation,
encompassing the big and the small, the old and the new, the sacred
and the profane.”—THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“Roger Kahn, the author who immortalized The Boys of Summer,
does equal justice to the 78 crew.”—USA TODAY
“Kahns glittering group portrait paints theYanks as both goats and
heroes, and they are vividly, engagingly, enragingly human in both
roles. . . . He can epitomize a player with a single swing of the pen.”
—TIME
Synopsis
On the morning of October 2, 1978, the World Champion NewYork Yankees found themselves tied for first place with the Boston Red Sox. That day these rousing ball clubs would meet at Fenway Park. Both had won ninety-nine games. Only one would win one hundred. The Yankees should have been reaching for their golf clubs-they had feuded until they were fourteen games out of first place. Then their fortunes turned, and they capped one of the most thrilling comebacks in baseball history by defeating the Red Sox that October afternoon in a game that many still remember as the greatest ever played. Transporting us into the midst of this unforgettable team, Roger Kahn weaves the first in-depth account of the legendary season of '78 and reaffirms his standing as our nation's master storyteller of baseball.
About the Author
Widely acclaimed as the greatest baseball writer of his generation,
Roger Kahn is most famous for his modern classic,
The Boys of Summer, which James Michener called the finest American book on sports. Kahn is the author of 16 books, most recently
The Head Game,
Baseball Seen from the Pitchers Mound. His magazine articles won five Dutton Best Magazine Story Awards and his book
The Era: When the Yankees Dodgers and Giants Ruled the World was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Born in Brooklyn, he now lives in Stone Ridge, N.Y. with his wife, the psychotherapist Katharine Colt Johnson.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Prologue
Nothing to Atone For
The New York Red Sox (and Other Curiosities)
Steinbrenner Unbound
Manumission
The Dark Prince
R. Martinez J.
The Doughnut as a Whole
The Gathering Storm
A Bickering Spring
Thirty Billion Calories on the Field
The New York Choirboys
Ten Days that Shook the Bronx 5
Resurrection
The Game
Epilogue: Finis Coronet Opus
An Informal Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index