The Boys of Summer

The Classic Narrative of Growing Up Within Shouting Distance of Ebbets Field, Covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and What's Happened to Everybody Since

By: Roger Kahn

Narrated by: Phil Gigante

The classic narrative of growing up within shouting distance of Ebbets Field, covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and what's happened to everybody since.

This is a story about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a story by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune. This is the story about what happened to Jackie, Carl Erskine, Pee Wee Reese, and the others when their glory days were behind them. In short, it is a story about America, about fathers and sons, prejudice and courage, triumph and disaster, and told with warmth, humor, wit, candor and love.

©2009 Roger Kahn (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A moving elegy...[to] the best team the majors ever saw...the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s." ( The New York Times)
"A work of high purpose and poetic accomplishment. The finest American book on sports." (James Michener)

Seminole work

This book captures so perfectly the spirit of baseball. It is wandering, nostalgic and ornate. It takes its time and tells a colorful and glorious story. This book is the DNA that birthed the Green Fields of the Mind

The profile of the individual characters in this book.

excellent! this book is highly recommended to any dodger fan because the insights of the various players are things you won't know unless you read about them

Hear from those who were a part of history

This started a little slow for me. Admittedly, I shared the opinion of a reviewer the author mentions in and epilogue that I was not as interested in his own back story as in those of the players. But I get it. I'd probably do the same thing. However, this becomes a fascinating book when Kahn begins to tell the stories of the players he tracked down long after their days in Brooklyn. It was a great look at the players as people, people who would not only witness but be a part of history as they played and coached alongside Jackie Robinson. And you won't find a more likable hero, fiction or non-, than Pee Wee Reese. Definitely worth a read/listen for all who appreciate the game and its history.

If you love ball, you gotta read it.

A superb story of baseball legends and how human they really were. Absolutely beautiful.

I don't ordinarily review things...

...because what do people care what this total stranger thinks? I'll make an exception here, but I'll be brief.

1. The narrator is superb.

2. Though I assumed the book was about the Dodgers, or about NYC baseball in general back then, it's as much about Roger's life as about baseball, which is fine. It's a good "read", a good story.

3. Roger "writes" (at the 3:23:20 mark, I believe) "Christy Mathewson of 1905, Tom Seaver of 1969, won the big games, dominated the World Series, and carried a team." I can't speak about Christy in 1905, but in 1969 Tom Seaver went just 1-1 in the World Series, losing Game 1. It was Jerry Koosman who won 2 of the Mets' 4 wins ("dominated the World Series, and carried (the) team"), including a complete-game win in the Game 5 clincher. The erroneous reference to Seaver, in this context, is disappointing from Roger.

In the 1973 World Series, Seaver went 0-1 with a no-decision. So when this book was written, Seaver's World Series record was pretty weak.

That's all.