Electric October

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Electric October

Seven World Series Games, Six Lives, Five Minutes of Fame That Lasted Forever

Kevin Cook

318 pages
33 photographs, index

Paperback

October 2019

978-1-4962-1772-1

$24.95 Add to Cart

About the Book

The 1947 World Series was “the most exciting ever” in the words of Joe DiMaggio, with a decade’s worth of drama packed into seven games between the mighty New York Yankees and the underdog Brooklyn Dodgers. It was Jackie Robinson’s first Series, a postwar spectacle featuring Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway, and President Harry Truman in supporting roles. It was also the first televised World Series—sportswriters called it “Electric October.”

But for all the star power on display, the outcome hinged on role players: Bill Bevens, a journeyman who knocked on the door of pitching immortality; Al Gionfriddo and Cookie Lavagetto, bench players at the center of the Series’ iconic moments; Snuffy Stirnweiss, a wartime batting champion who never got any respect; and managers Bucky Harris and Burt Shotton, each an unlikely choice to run his team. Six men found themselves plucked from obscurity to shine on the sport’s greatest stage. But their fame was fleeting; three would never play another big-league game, and all six would be forgotten.

Kevin Cook brings the ’47 Series back to life, introducing us to men whose past offered no hint they were destined for extraordinary things. For some the Series was a memory to hold onto. For others it would haunt them to the end of their days. And for us Cook offers new insights—some heartbreaking, some uplifting—into what fame and glory truly mean.

 

Author Bio

Kevin Cook is the author of Ten Innings at Wrigley: The Wildest Ballgame Ever, with Baseball on the Brink, the award-winning Tommy’s Honor (the basis for the feature film), and Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime That Changed America. He is a former senior editor at Sports Illustrated.

Praise

“A wonderful book by someone who clearly loves the game and the seemingly small moments that cement that love. Bravo!”—Ken Burns
 
 

“Heartfelt and entertaining. . . . Cook’s narrative is splendid, but the subtext of his book is even better.”—Wall Street Journal
 

“A poignant study that goes beyond baseball.”—New York Times
 

“The 1947 World Series had everything: Joe DiMaggio and Jackie Robinson, Yankee Stadium and Ebbets Field. . . . Kevin Cook offers a fine appreciation of the games, the subplots, and the personalities that made ’47 a true Fall Classic.”—Bob Costas

 

“A magnificent, Hall of Fame caliber addition to baseball literature.”—George F. Will
 

“[An] essential summer read . . . a fascinating deep dive into the unlikely characters that made the 1947 World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers a classic.”—New York Post

"Entertaining, well-researched history.... In profiling the lives of these six overlooked men, Cook reveals the complicated reality of baseball’s golden era.”—Publishers Weekly starred review

“An impressively reported, smoothly written book.”—Kirkus Reviews

“[An] entertaining slice of baseball history.”—Booklist

"An outstanding collection of stories about men, about life and about one glorious World Series, it is one that all baseball readers should add to their libraries."

Table of Contents

Prologue: Mortals
Part One: Six Lives
1. Young Old Burt
2. The Fabulous Breaker Boy
3. Zenith
4. Cookie and the Flea
5. Bev and Snuffy
6. They'll Manage
7. The Year All Hell Broke Loose
Part Two: Seven Games
8. Sheer Hysteria
9. A Horrendous Afternoon
10. Bums' Rush
11. The Twenty-Seventh Out
12. First and Second Guesses
13. The Robbery
14. Battle of the Bronx
Part Three: Six Futures
15. The Year After Hell Broke Loose
16. Late Innings
17. Try, Try Again
18. Warning Signs
19. This Is Cooperstown
20. Hero and Hero
21. Back Back Back
Epilogue: The Things They Left Behind
A Note on Sources
Acknowledgments
Index
 

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