* Happy days are here again

September 3, 2009

In the form of  Rob Kirkpatrick‘s new book, 1969: The Year Everything Changed.

Boomers will get a kick out of this piece of nostalgia, which covers the bad (Vietnam, the Manson murders, Days of Rage) as well as the good (Woodstock, Easy Rider, Wody Allen). But for our purposes, it’s all about the game.

Kirkpatrick, a senior editor at Thomas Dunne Books (this title was published by Skyhorse Press, so there’s no nepotiz here) includes several chapters on baseball and ‘The Miracle Mets” (look carefully at the bottom right of the book jacket), beginning with the first rumblings of success when they reached .500 after 36 games, to their triumpoh over the Orioles in the World Series.

One quibble: when the author describes the controversial play that led to the Mets’ 2-1 win in Game 4, he writes: “A replay indicates that [J.C.] Martin might have been running outside the base path on his way to first when he was struck by the ball.” Actually, Martin, who bunted as a pinch-hitter with Rod Gaspar on first, ran inside the lines, where he was hit by reliever Pete Richert’s throw.

Kirkpatrick also relates a story Jerry Koosman told author Peter Golenbock for his book, Amazin’: The Miraculous History of New York’s Most Beloved Baseball Team, regarding the famous Cleon Jones shoe polish incident. Accoding to the lefty- pitcher, when the foul ball came into the dugout, manager Gil Hodges told him to brush it against his shoe, thus creating the black mark. From everything I’ve read about Hodges, it seems out of character for him to, well, cheat like that. Sad, if true.

You can read more about the Mets via his website.

Kirkpatrick is also the author of Cecil Travis of the Washington Senators: The War-Torn History of an All-Star Shortstop.

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