We Would Have Played for Nothing - (Baseball Oral History Project) by Fay Vincent (Paperback)

About the Book

A great Father's Day gift, this second volume of oral histories from former Major League Baseball Commissioner Vincent covers the 1950s and 1960s, the era when baseball expanded across the country. 40 b&w photographs throughout.

Book Synopsis

Former Major League Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent brings together a stellar roster of ballplayers from the 1950s and 1960s in this wonderful new history of the game.

Whitey Ford, Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, Bill Rigney, and Ralph Branca tell stories about baseball in New York when the Yankees dominated and seemed to play either the Dodgers or the Giants in every World Series. By the end of the fifties, the two National League teams had relocated to California, as baseball expanded across the country.

Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts, Braves mainstay Lew Burdette, home-run king Harmon Killebrew, Cubs slugger Billy Williams, and Hall of Famers Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson share great stories about milestone events, from Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier on the field to Frank Robinson doing the same in the dugout. They remember the teammates and opponents they admired, including Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Warren Spahn, Don Newcombe, and Ernie Banks.

For anyone who grew up watching baseball in the 1950s and 1960s, or for anyone who wonders what it was like in the days when ballplayers negotiated their own contracts and worked real jobs in the off-season, this is a book to cherish.

Review Quotes

"Engaging...[a] loving, valuable addition to baseball historiography." -- Booklist

"For the new generation and those to come, Vincent's latest is one that will resonate as history, and a good read besides." -- John J. Monaghan, Jr., The Providence Journal

"Serious baseballers will lap up the revelations like suds from an overpriced ballpark brew." -- Bill Lubinger, The Plain Dealer