Inside Big League Baseball

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1962. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good. [8], 98, [6] pages. Illustrations. Some cover wear and soiling noted. Roger Kahn (October 31, 1927 - February 6, 2020) was an American author, best known for his 1972 baseball book The Boys of Summer. Kahn began his newspaper career in 1948, when he took a job with the New York Herald Tribune. A keen Brooklyn Dodgers fan, he reported on their games over the 1952 and 1953 seasons. He became sports editor for Newsweek in 1956, and editor-at-large of the Saturday Evening Post in 1963. His best-known book is The Boys of Summer (1972), which examines his relationship with his father as seen through the prism of their shared affection for the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 2002, a Sports Illustrated panel placed The Boys of Summer second on a list of "The Top 100 Sports Books of All Time". In addition to The Boys of Summer, Kahn wrote books such as Good Enough to Dream, a chronicle of his year as the owner of a minor league baseball franchise; The Era 1947-57, an examination of the decade during which the three New York clubs - the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants - dominated Major League Baseball; and Memories of Summer, a look back at his youth and early career, plus extended pieces on New York baseball legends Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. He also wrote a biography of the heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey, entitled A Flame of Pure Fire. He won the E. P. Dutton Award for best sports magazine article of the year five times. Although he edited two earlier works, Inside Big League Baseball was Kahn's first published book that he authored. Derived from a Kirkus review: More than any other sport, baseball has fascinated Americans since possibly the first formal game was played on the Elysian Fields of New York back in 1846. Though Roger Kahn speculates as to why this is so, he is largely concerned with the ballplayers themselves as they work their way from the minors to the majors, as they go through spring training and enter the race for the pennant, as they undergo the hectic, exhilarating ordeal of the World Series. By observing the techniques of pros like Early Wynn, Stan Musial and Mickey Mantle, the reader can begin to comprehend the enormous energies, both mental and physical, expended in the game. He also learns the difference between inspired and routine management through anecdotes about managers like Durocher. The serious aftermath of big league success is a problem for every ball player and how they deal with it is revealing of each personality discussed. Mr. Kahn has written a diamond-studded chronology of American baseball which probes its glitter and glory to reveal its demands and rigors.