The Boys of Summer Read online

  Senators, 179, 271, 280, 352

  Shuba, George Thomas, 224-41; and 1948 season, 239, 349; and 1952 season, 118, 126, 127,142, 143, 144, 157, 159, 236, 320; and 1953 season, 224, 235-36, 237-38; and 1955 season, 236; background of, 226, 231-34, 236; as bishops brother, 236; as coach, 228; Dodgers sign, 233; and Dressen, 118, 144; family/personal life of, 225, 226, 228, 229, 238; as fielder, 235-36; as hitter, 126, 127, 224-25, 234, 235, 237-38, 239-41, 320; injuries of, 236; Kahn first sees, 239; Kahn plays catch with, 229-31; Kalm’s (Gordon) views about, 239, 240; kidding of, 235-36; in minor leagues, 234, 235; as number 8, 393; as pitcher, 229-30; post-baseball life of, 224-31, 446; questions to Kahn about, 203; reflections about baseball of, 236-37;, 238-29, 241; and religion, 228, 237-38; resigns from baseball, 236; and Rickey, 233, 235, 236; and Robinson, 393; with Royals, 234, 235, 236; self-improvement efforts of, 227; as umpire, 228; and World Series games, 224, 237-38; in Youngstown, Ohio, 224-41

  Shuba, Katherine, 228, 229, 234, 237, 238

  Simpson, Gus, 39, 194, 195, 196

  Slaughter, Enos, 36, 44, 266

  Smith, Red, 65, 70-71, 72,123,183, 315, 356, 357, 378, 389, 426, 443

  Snider, Beverly, 149, 376, 377, 378, 380, 382, 383-84, 385

  Snider, Duke (Edwin Donald), 374-85; and 1944 season, 382; and 1947 season, 382; and 1948 season, 349; and 1950 season, 89-90;, 383; and 1951 season, 383; and 1952 season, 92,142, 143,144, 147, 148-50, 154, 159,160, 162, 163,164, 165, 375, 383; and 1953 season, 180,185, 374-75; and 1954 season, 387; and 1963 season, 379; and Alston’s comment about fighting for job, 387; and Bavasi, 381; benching of, 148-50; as celebrity, 377; and choking, 92; in clubhouse, 141; as coach, 381; Collier’s story about, 377-79, 384; Dodgers sign, 382; dreams of, 375, 379; and Dressen, 144, 147, 148-50, 376-77; in Fallbrook, California, 380-85; family of, 382; and fans, 318-19; and Furillo, 318, 328, 383; with Giants, 379; health of, 447; as hitter, 19, 97,150,180, 375, 382-83; injuries of, 379; and Kahn as baseball player, 452; Kahn’s story about, 148; Kahn’s views of, 328; locker of, 140; with Mets, 379; and move to Los Angeles, 424; as number 4, 393; with Padres, 381; and Pafko, 267, 270, 384; personality of, 147; post-baseball life of, 379-85, 447; and Reese, 313, 318-19,384-85; reflections about baseball of, 375, 376, 377-79, 384; retirement from baseball of, 379; and Rickey, 384; and Robinson, 369, 393; and Roe, 293; and Roeder, 147, 150; and Shuba, 235; slump of, 383; and stickball, 19; stories about, 303, 384-85; and World Series games, 92,160,162,163,164, 165,185, 375, 379, 383; and Yankees, 383

  Sport magazine, 387-88, 409

  Sporting News: Goetz statement in, 291

  Sports Illustrated, 198-202, 290-91, 305, 422

  sportswriters: Black’s present of scotch to, 159; and Campanella, 355, 357, 363; and Dodger press relations, 166-67; and Furillo, 334-35; Labine song by, 214; Negroes as, 135; and Reese, 319, 453; and Robinson, 400, 405. See also specific person

  Stanky, Eddie, 121,133-35, 371

  Stengel, Casey, 92, 96, 164, 184, 272,280, 342

  Stripp, Jersey Joe, 18-19, 23, 34

  Sukeforth, Clyde, 7, 90, 265, 369

  Tampa, Florida, 103, 105, 325

  Thompson, Fresco, 3-5, 6-10, 48-49, 119, 187,236,337,435

  Thomson, Bobby, 7, 90, 92, 213, 214,262.264,428,454

  Three-Eye League, 257

  Tigers, 211, 213, 275, 276

  umpires, 120-21, 142, 157, 228, 308-9;. See also specific person

  Vero Beach, Florida: and Dodger move to Los Angeles, 429; Dodger training camp near, 94, 96, 97, 114, 166, 387, 452; Dodgertown Camp at, 335-36; and race issues, 112,303,403-4

  Walker, Dixie, 39, 40, 45, 303, 323, 324, 337,382,445,451

  Walker, Rube, 55-56, 263, 350, 351, 453

  Warneke, Lonnie, 36, 299, 300

  Weinberg, Benny, 59-60, 61, 65

  Weiss, Buddy, 85, 86, 89

  White, Bob, 57-58, 63, 68, 73

  White Sox, 173, 257, 329-30, 425

  Williams, Dick, 118,119, 120,130-32;, 215, 344, 352

  Williams, Ted, 67, 266, 393

  Woodling, Gene, 163,164, 268

  Woodward, Stanley “The Coach”; and 1953 season, 168-70; and Collier’s article about Snider, 378; and Dodger press relations, 167; health of, 169; and Kahn as Dodger fan, 119; Kahn’s 1953 meeting with, 168-70; and Kahn’s cryptogram story, 177; Kahn’s relationship with, 73, 82; at Newark Evening News, 378; and race issues, 44, 45, 104, 177; as sports editor at Herald Tribune, 70-73; as sports editor for Miami News, 168-70

  World Series: of 1911, 24; of 1926, 93; of 1929,184; of 1935, 275,276; of 1945, 264, 267; of 1956, 203, 211; of 1959, 203, 329-30, 333, 379, 425; of 1963, 247; of 1967,

  World Series (cont.) 224; of 1914, 204; of 1947, 46; of 1949,92, 319-20, 383; of 1952, 92, 159-65, 184, 246-47, 254-55, 268, 273, 345, 375, 383; of 1953,180, 182-86, 213, 224,236, 237-38, 292, 346; of 1955, 202-3,291, 453-54; attendance at, 425; Campanella’s views about, 355; and choking, 92; and Dodger pitching staff, 93; and pitches used by pitchers, 95; and race issues, 273; rings from, 431

  Yankees; and 1927 season, 180; and 1935 season, 387; and 1947 World Series, 46; and 1951 season, 383; and 1952 season, 114; and 1952 World Series, 159-62, 246-47, 268; and 1953 World Series, 182-86, 236; and 1955 World Series, 202-3;, 291; and 1956 World Series, 203, 211; Cleveland plays the, 200-201; Dodgers play the, 159-62, 182-86, 202-3, 211, 236, 246-47, 268, 291; Kahn’s views about, 164; and old-timers’ games, 339; and race issues, 164, 269; and Red Sox, 322; Roe scouted by, 298; and Ruth, 387; and Snider, 383

  Yanoodi, Chester, 332-33, 337, 338, 339

  Young, Dick: and Anderson’s story about Braves, 181; and Bavasi, 100, 101, 431; and Campanella, 357; credo of, 103; and Dressen, 101, 181; and Furillo, 329; and “Giants is dead” story, 181; heroes of, 99; and Kahn family readings of Joyce, 117; and Kahn’s early Dodger reporting, 52-53, 54, 56, 107; and Kahn’s race story, 174; Kahn’s relationship with, 101-3; and Kahn’s writing of The Boys of Summer, 442, 443; and Labine, 211, 214-15; and O’Malley, 101; and pitching, 98, 99-100; and race issues, 104; and Rickey, 98, 99-100; and Robinson, 170, 400; and Roe’s spitballs, 290-91; and Snider’s benching, 148, 149; and traveling with Dodgers, 104, 128-29; views of New York Times of, 101-2, 103

  ALSO BY ROGER KAHN

  Beyond the Boys of Summer:

  The Very Best of Roger Kahn, 2005

  October Men: Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner,

  Billy Martin, and the Yankees Miraculous

  Finish in 1978, 2003

  The Head Game: Baseball Seen

  from the Pitcher’s Mound, 2000

  A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and

  the Roaring Twenties, 1999

  Memories of Summer, 1997

  The Era, 1947–1957:

  When the Yankees, the New York Giants and

  the Brooklyn Dodgers Ruled the World, 1993

  Games We Used to Play, 1992

  Joe & Marilyn, 1986

  Good Enough to Dream, 1985

  The Seventh Game, 1982

  But Not to Keep, 1978

  A Season in the Sun, 1977

  How the Weather Was, 1973

  The Battle for Morningside Heights, 1970

  The Passionate People, 1968

  Copyright

  Portions of this book have appeared in slightly different form in Sport magazine. Portions of “A Farewell to the Captain” appeared in different form in the Los Angeles Times.

  Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint excerpts from the following:

  Lines on page xix, from “Carpe Diem, “ and on page 81, from “I Could Give All to Time, “ are from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1942 by Robert Frost. Copyright © 1969 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. Copyright © 1970 by Lesley Frost Ballantine. Reprinted by permission of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. and Jonathan Cape Ltd.

  Lines on page 6, from “Border Line, “ are from Selected Poems by Langston Hughes. Copyright 1947 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by pe
rmission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

  Lines on page 205, from “… Did I ever dream …” by Saigyõ, are from Anthology of Japanese Literature: From the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century, compiled and edited by Donald Keene. Copyright © 1955 by Grove Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Grove Press, Inc.

  Lines on page 207, from ‘The Return, “are from Personae by Ezra Pound. Copyright 1926 by Ezra Pound. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation and Faber & Faber Ltd.

  Lines on page 152, from “The Cremation of Sam McGee, “ are from The Collected Poems of Robert Service. Reprinted by permission of Dodd, Mead & Company, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. and Ernest Benn Ltd.

  Lines on page ix, from “I See the Boys of Summer, “ are from Collected Poems by Dylan Thomas. Copyright 1939 by New Directions Publishing Corporation and J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. and the Trustees for the Copyrights of the late Dylan Thomas.

  A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1972 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.

  THE BOYS OF SUMMER. Copyright © 1971, 1972, 1998 by Roger Kahn.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Epub Edition © JANUARY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-062-08998-4

  First Perennial Library edition published 1987.

  First HarperPerennial edition published 1998.

  First Perennial Classics edition published 2000.

  First Harper Perennial Modem Classics edition published 2006.

  * * *

  The Library of Congress has catalogued a previous edition as follows:

  Kahn, Roger.

  The boys of summer

  “Perennial Library.”

  Reprint. Originally published: New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

  1. Brooklyn Dodgers (Baseball Team). 2. Baseball—United States—History. I. Title.

  GV875.BK3 1987

  796.357′64′0974723-dc21 86-46074

  * * *

  06 07 08 09 10 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  About the Publisher

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

  25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)

  Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

  Canada

  HarperCollins Canada

  2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor

  Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca

  New Zealand

  HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited

  P.O. Box 1

  Auckland, New Zealand

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road

  London, W6 8JB, UK

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  10 East 53rd Street

  New York, NY 10022

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com