Thom reviewed Five seasons by Roger Angell
Review of 'Five seasons' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
The 1970s was a turbulent time in baseball, and this was one of the first books written about that era. It's poetic prose covers personalities and stories, along with history and anecdotes of five seasons - including the best world series ever.
This era saw the start of free agency and the first DH in the world series. Angell's comments that those championship games were played "too late in the year" were true then, and three weeks more so now. The essay on Steve Blass "Gone for Good" was clearly the best in the book.
The book is enhanced by the internet sources available now - after reading Angell's excellent description of Herb Washington in the 1974 world series, I was able to find a television broadcast of the event. Box scores of the games he was at or talked about, whatever happened to Dick Allen, etc.
I liked the …
The 1970s was a turbulent time in baseball, and this was one of the first books written about that era. It's poetic prose covers personalities and stories, along with history and anecdotes of five seasons - including the best world series ever.
This era saw the start of free agency and the first DH in the world series. Angell's comments that those championship games were played "too late in the year" were true then, and three weeks more so now. The essay on Steve Blass "Gone for Good" was clearly the best in the book.
The book is enhanced by the internet sources available now - after reading Angell's excellent description of Herb Washington in the 1974 world series, I was able to find a television broadcast of the event. Box scores of the games he was at or talked about, whatever happened to Dick Allen, etc.
I liked the book a lot, but it didn't hold my attention as [b:The Summer Game|603712|The Summer Game|Roger Angell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328820924l/603712.SY75.jpg|590278] did. Rambling paragraphs speculating on the future of some players feel out of place among the well-written prose - this was the stuff of newspapers at the time. Minor complaints, really - I look forward to more from [a:Roger Angell|18856|Roger Angell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1389625724p2/18856.jpg], who celebrated his 101st birthday last year.