1921 - by Lyle Spatz & Steve Steinberg (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest moments: the death of a player during a game and the revelations of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. At this critical juncture for baseball, the two teams that emerged to fight for the future of the game were also battling for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers as the city dramatically rose to the pinnacle of the baseball world.
1921 tells the story of a season that pitted the New York Yankees against their Polo Grounds landlords and hated rivals, John McGraw's Giants, in the first all-New York City World Series. Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg re-create the drama that featured the charismatic Babe Ruth in his assault on baseball records in the face of McGraw's disdain for the American League and the Ruth-led slugging style. Their work evokes the early 1920s with the words of renowned sportswriters such as Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, and Heywood Broun, and with more than fifty photographs, offering a vivid picture of the colorful characters, the crosstown rivalry, and the incomparable performances of this classic season.

Review Quotes

""1921" is an incredibly comprehensive look at a pivotal baseball season--for the sport, for New York, for an America finally distancing itself from war. Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz have created a mosaic of a year in baseball that is both illuminating and entertaining."--Frank Deford --Frank Deford (09/28/2009)

"["1921"] is a handsomely presented, top-shelf physical product, with no stinting on any of the extras: wonderful photos aplenty, richly detailed endnotes and ". . . "the luxury of appendices providing box scores and statistical tables. . . . No detail has been overlooked, and no small effort spared."--Steve Treder, "Hardball Times"--Steve Treder"Hardball Times" (06/01/2010)

"As Steinberg states on his web site, 'Time travel is possible.' In "1921", he and Spatz will take you back to see this pivotal season for yourself."--"Baseball America"--James Bailey"Baseball America" (09/30/2010)

"Spatz and Steinberg . . . are most adept at obtaining and presenting their findings in a manner that is both educational . . . and entertaining."--Ron Kaplan, "ForeWord"--Ron Kaplan "ForeWord "

"This carefully researched book is a good example of what baseball can teach about US culture and history."--B./i>--B. Tavakolian"Choice" (08/01/2010)

"Two decades into the twentieth century, much of baseball was still playing a turn-of-the-century game. 1921 represents one of the pivot points in baseball history, as the old style and its proponents, embodied by John McGraw and his Giants, began to give way to what would become the modern game, as embodied by Babe Ruth and his Yankees."--Bob Costas --Bob Costas (09/28/2009)

About the Author

Lyle Spatz is the editor of The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers (Nebraska, 2012). Steve Steinberg is the author of Baseball in St. Louis, 1900-1925. Charles C. Alexander is the author of several baseball books, including John McGraw (Nebraska, 1995) and Spoke: A Biography of Tris Speaker.