One Shining Season

NY: Pharos Books, 1991. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Baseball players who have had only one great season throughout their careers discuss the events, circumstances, and glory of the limelight, and their return to mediocrity. In a century and a half of baseball history, many journeyman players have enjoyed a single season--or a partial season--of greatness. Fedo ( The Man from Lake Wobegon ) focuses here on 11 men who achieved just such success from 1945 to 1970. Among them are: pitcher Ned Garver, who garnered 20 of the St. Louis Browns' lowly total of 54 victories in 1951; and Bob Hazle, who joined the Milwaukee Braves late in the 1957 season and helped them win the pennant by hitting over .400 for two months. Others include Willard Marshall of the New York Giants, Walt Dropo of the Boston Red Sox, and Wes Parker of the Los Angeles Dodgers (probably the most complex and unusual of the interviewees). As might be anticipated, none of the former players can explain how he came by short-term brilliance, nor how he lost it--but the concept of the book is nonetheless intriguing. 169 pages. Clean copy. Record # 374874