Beyond the Boys of Summer : The Very Best of Roger Kahn

by Kahn, Roger; Miraldi, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780071447270
• ISBN10: 007144727X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-01-31
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Summary

Spanning half a century, the first comprehensive anthology of the great Roger Kahn's writing, for a new generation of sports fans Roger Kahn, author of 19 books including the modern classic The Boys of Summer, is arguably America's greatest sportswriter. Now, for the first time, Beyond the Boys of Summer presents a showcase of 50 years worth of Kahn's celebrated work. From a 1955 article on the incomparable Jackie Robinson to excerpts from his recent bestselling book on the controversial '78 Yankees, this unprecedented anthology spans an entire career to show off the grace, wit, and elegance of Roger Kahn's most memorable writing on sports, as well as his reporting beyond the world of baseball diamonds and boxing rings. Uniquely organized around life's stages, the book brings readers face to face with some of the greatest names in sport, including Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, Reggie Jackson, and Pete Rose. Through Kahn's fly-on-the-wall style, readers will see Duke Snider in the avocado fields of California, Mickey Mantle in Texas taverns, and Joe DiMaggio watching his famous wife, Marilyn Monroe, flirt for the movie cameras. In the final segment, Kahn meets the 80-year-old poet Robert Frost, mourns the deaths of friends and heroes, and movingly writes about how sports stars--and even sportswriters--grow old, looking back on a long life well lived.

Author Biography

Roger Kahn (Stone Ridge, NY) is widely acclaimed as the greatest sportswriter of his generation. With

19 books to his credit, Sports Illustrated named his 1972 classic, The Boys of Summer, the best baseball book of all time. Author of the recent bestseller October Men, Kahn was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for his book The Era.

Rob Miraldi (New Paltz, NY) is a professor of journalism at the State University of New York at New Paltz. With a doctorate in American studies, Miraldi started his career as a sportswriter.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Wonder of Writing	xi
Introduction: ``Sliders with Social History''	xvii
PART I GROWING UP AND BEING YOUNG
A Father, a Son, and Baseball in Brooklyn (from Memories of Summer, 1997)	3	(10)
Coming of Age (from The Passionate People, 1968)	13	(12)
And Then There is Sex (from The Seventh Game, 1982)	25	(6)
The Dreams of the Young (from Good Enough to Dream, 1985)	31	(6)
Restless Youth: the Columbia Uprising (from The Battle for Morningside Heights, 1970)	37	(8)
Kareem Arrives (from Sport magazine, 1970)	45	(18)
PART II LIVING YOUR LIFE
The Babe: Father of the Home Run (from Baseball Digest, 1974; originally published in Esquire, 1959)	63	(12)
The Homer Heard Round the World (from Sport, 1960)	75	(10)
Roger Maris: The Ordeal of His Success (from Sports Illustrated, 1961)	85	(10)
Henry Aaron: A Success Story (from Sport, 1959)	95	(18)
The Great Cork Crime (from the Los Angeles Times, 2003)	113	(6)
PART III WILLIE, MICKEY, DUKE: THE NEW YORK CENTER FIELDERS
The ``Say Hey Kid'' Up Close (from Sport, 1969)	119	(20)
The Mick on and off the Field (from Esquire, 1971)	139	(8)
The Duke in a New Pasture (from The Boys of Summer, 1972)	147	(12)
PART IV DAMN GOOD HITTERS AND PITCHERS
Eddie Mathews, the Man on Third (from Sport, 1958)	159	(14)
Whitey, the Chairman of the Board (from Sport, 1958)	173	(18)
Joe D's Stormy Marriage (from Joe and Marilyn, 1986)	191	(6)
Catfish in the Big Apple (from Esquire, 1975)	197	(8)
Pete Rose, the Hit Man (from Pete Rose: My Story, 1989)	205	(14)
PART V THE GLADIATORS FIGHT TO SUCCEED
Dempsey: The Manassas Mauler Goes Down (from A Flame of Pure Fire, 1999)	219	(6)
Ali (from Time, 1976)	225	(4)
Billy Vs. Reggie (from October Men, 2002)	229	(10)
Steinbrenner: a Yankee Doodle Dandy (from Sport, 1981)	239	(14)
PART VI HEROES OFF THE FIELD
Jackie Robinson: Like No One Elsev (from Sport, 1955)	253	(18)
Roberto Clemente's Triumph and Tragedy (from Sports Illustrated, 1976)	271	(10)
Remembering Ring (from The Nation, 2000)	281	(6)
The Captain (from the Los Angeles Times, 1999)	287	(10)
PART VII ON GETTING OLD
The Young Writer Meets the Aged Poet (from Saturday Evening Post, 1960)	297	(14)
The Last Summer of ``Stan The Man'' (from Sports Illustrated, 1960)	311	(8)
Past Their Prime (from Playboy, 1979)	319	(12)
Even Sportswriters Get Old (from Esquire, 1974)	331	(6)
Carl Furillo, 1922--1989 (from the New York Times, 1989)	337	(4)
Acknowledgments	341	(2)
Roger Kahn Bibliography	343	(14)
Index	357