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A Tale of Three Cities: The 1962 Baseball Season in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco Hardcover – Illustrated, April 1, 2009

by Steven Travers (Author)
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
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Nineteen sixty-two―it’s been called “the end of innocence,” as America witnessed the Cuban Missile Crisis and the following year saw the Kennedy assassination and the early stirrings of Vietnam.In baseball, 1962 was a thrilling season. Five years prior the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants had migrated west to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, leaving New York to the Yankees. In 1962, those same Giants and Dodgers faced off to see who would advance to the World Series. Waiting to do battle were the Yankees, who were also battling for allegiance in New York with the Mets’ debut. The old Subway Series had gone cross-country.Just as it was the end of innocence, it was an end of an era for the Yankees. Winners of eleven World Series titles in twenty years, they would go fifteen years― a record for the modern-era Bombers at the time―until their next championship. They appeared in the next two World Series, but by the end of the decade it was those upstart Mets amazin’ fans. The Dodgers would break through the following year and again in 1965 while the Giants―convinced they’d be back many times― have yet to win a title on the West Coast. Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, Casey Stengel. Steven Travers details Hollywood’s adoration of the Dodgers, San Francisco’s battle between inferiority and superiority, and New York, rulers of sport and society, experiencing the beginnings of a changing of the guard. Three cities, five teams, and one great year are all here in A Tale of Three Cities.
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  1. Print length
    274 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    POTOMAC BOOKS
  4. Publication date
    April 1, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1597974315
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1597974318
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Another bull’s-eye by Steven Travers. He has captured the love, laughter, and largesse of the 1962 baseball season, maybe the most entertaining season of all time, especially in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Yes, he can. And did.”—Maury Allen, author of Yankees World Series Memories Published On: 2009-01-28

"Steve Travers does a really fine job of capturing not only the highlights and sidelights of those memorable days in the early 1960s, but he also focuses on some of the legends of that golden period, including Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Maury Wills, Orlando Cepeda, Don Drysdale, Whitey Ford, and so many more. Entertaining, informative, and a great read for the hardcore and the casual fan."—Bruce Macgowan, Comcast SportsNet Bay Area

"ESPN Voice Jon Miller dubs the 1962 baseball season his 'coming of age as a baseball fan.' Steven Travers relives that season in this engaging and lively work. A book utterly worthy of an unforgettable year."—Curt Smith, author of Voices of The Game and Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story

"Travers paints a beautiful picture of baseball in its golden age, a time that should be remembered fondly. All of the characters with their required personas are there: the declining superstar Duke Snider, the partying Mickey Mantle, and the blossoming superstar in Willie Mays. Travers integrates these stories into his storytelling seamlessly. . . . A Tale of Three Cities shines a light on a good era of baseball."—athomeplate.com Published On: 2009-06-03

About the Author

STEVEN TRAVERS, a University of Southern California graduate and former professional baseball player with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Oakland A’s, is the author of twenty books, including the bestselling Barry Bonds: Baseball’s Superman (Sports Publishing, 2002), nominated for a Casey Award as Best Baseball Book of 2002; and One Night, Two Teams: Alabama vs. USC and the Game that Changed a Nation (Taylor Trade, 2007). A former prep sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, he lives in California and has one daughter, Elizabeth.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ POTOMAC BOOKS; Illustrated edition (April 1, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 274 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1597974315
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1597974318
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

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Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5
13 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Bradford R. Beedle
5.0 out of 5 stars TRAVERS HITS HOME RUNS IN THE TRADITION OF ANGELL, JORDAN AND MURRAY!
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2009
TRAVERS HITS HOME RUNS IN THE TRADITION OF ANGELL, JORDAN AND MURRAY!

Steve Travers is as fine a sportswriter as there is in America. He has great wit and literary style, and his books are always chock full of fabulous anecdotes and information. I have long been a fan of his work, which reminds me of Pat Jordan, Jim Murray and Roger Angell. I highly recommend this and all his books. I can't put his books down, they read like novels; fast-paced and excellent from start to finish.
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Eric Paddon
2.0 out of 5 stars Concept Ruined By Too Few Fresh Insights
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2012
Verified Purchase
First off, let me say that a number of the negative reviews of this book are going after Mr. Travers for the wrong reasons. The ones that take him to task for his politics and more importantly his open expression of his Christian faith, are absolutely out of bounds and reveal more about the bigoted attitudes of the reviewers than they do about the shortcomings of this book. Mr. Travers' only makes a couple of brief references to his faith in the author's intro and frankly after years of seeing authors write books in which they talk about baseball being their religion etc. it's nice to know that Mr. Travers has a sense of perspective about things. Likewise, the assaults on his conservative politics are mostly out of line as well. I have seen liberal authors for years subtly and not so subtly inject their own political biases into the text, and Travers frankly hardly measures up to the level of the more obnoxious types who have done this (think Harvey Araton in his recent book on the 1970 Knicks; or the book on 1970s baseball by an author who thinks Jimmy Carter was wonderful, or Tim Wendel's book on the 1968 season that decided Tom Hayden was the only person worth commenting on the 1968 riots). In fact, his cultural analysis of liberal northern California and conservative southern California is spot on accurate history writing, and in point of fact, one should note that he praises the Los Angeles Times of this era for branching out to be more than just a newspaper for conservatives but to be a higher quality end product. Yes, some San Francisco writers come in for a critical drubbing as does San Francisco culture, but many old-school Democrats of a culturally conservative bent (in other words those who were as much a part of the FDR coalition as any other) would have shared those sentiments as well. Yes, there is a mild shot of sorts at Jim Bouton, but it's nothing nasty and frankly Bouton is the kind of guy who shouldn't have been beatified for profiting off what he learned in the clubhouse (and who can quibble with his declaration that Bouton was a bad actor? I'm one of the few who remember seeing his bad "Ball Four" TV series and I can attest that's accurate!)

But while Mr. Travers does not deserve the condemnation he's received for his politics and faith from the critics, sadly I must say that the book as a whole is not very good when it comes to its principal subject, baseball in 1962. The chief problem is that Travers has basically given us the equivalent of a college research paper in which he has gathered together all of the secondary literature on the subject and basically cut and pasted it all together. I had re-read David Plaut's book on the Dodger-Giant race just a few days prior to re-reading this and there was a disturbing deja vu attack as I saw many of the anecdotes and stories from that book reappearing in this one. This is frankly not an acceptable approach if we're going to justify the existence of a second book on the same subject for us to enjoy. Travers IMO needed to interview more people for this book for some fresh insights, or to go back to the newspaper and broadcast accounts of the GAMES for some more analysis of how the action unfolded on-field. After his cultural history set-up, what really follows is just a by the numbers rehash of familiar information. That might have earned an A in a college history class for knowing what the secondary literature is, but for a new book on the subject, it has to earn a failing grade. I think his fair-minded cultural analysis of the times could have easily worked in a book about the season that took a different tact. And that's the real pity of this book.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Story But.....
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2010
I was attracted to the book because 1962 was also one of the first seasons I vividly recall. Although the story is compelling as far as it goes, the Angels and Mets--the Angels in particular--are given the short shrift although their season was one of the most miraculous ever. The inference that Sandy Koufax lacked courage could easily been omited. In the stretch drive of 1962, he didn't lack courage--he lacked health. The most significant factor in the NL race was his injured finger. But the most annoying aspect of the book were the obvious factual errors. Everybody knows that Ken Hubbs perished in a plane crash. He didn't drown. A mistake like that calls into question the veracity of the rest of the book. The lack of citations is glaring.
5 people found this helpful
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John J. Franco
1.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't even finish this book
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2012
It's been a long time since I stopped reading a book because it was so bad, but that's what happened with this one. I'm guessing the editors did too, because I've never seen a more poorly edited book.

As someone who really loves baseball and baseball history, this book should have been right up my alley. Any hope of a poor man's "October 1964" or "Summer of 49" were quickly dashed.

In the first chapter, Travers describes the circumstances surrounding the Dodgers and Giants moves to California. Some of the information was interesting, and new to me, but Travers' bias against San Francisco overwhelms any interesting information. I don't doubt that the Giants made a mistake when they moved into Candlestick park, but I don't think it was necessary for Travers to make fun of everything related to the decision in such a harsh way.

In the next few chapters (I guess), Travers attempts to set the stage for the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Giants and Angels by talking a little about their players and their backgrounds. Certainly a good idea, but the execution is poor. The timelines are out of order, the writing is inconsistent, even the formatting is off at times.

Travers tells the same stories over and over, especially the story of how the Yankees traded Vic Power because he was too "flashy" to be their first black player. Again, that might be true, but it doesn't need to be repeated over and over. At one point, Travers talks about Whitey Ford's legendary durability, then mentions in passing that he missed time in 1962 with hamstring injuries.

At some point, the writing of this book simply overwhelmed the subject matter, and I had to put it down.
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Top reviews from other countries

Brian Maitland
1.0 out of 5 stars complete letdown
Reviewed in Canada on May 21, 2012
Verified Purchase
A very fascinating year in Major League Baseball is let down by this very poor effort at writing about it. In the subtitle is the word "Baseball" so I could not see the relevance in bringing up USC or UCLA sports let alone any college sport analogies that are sprinkled throughout. Then I see the author has written books on USC sports and is an alum. Who cares? Linking the fortunes of college sports in California to the 1962 baseball season is a huge stretch even when looking at the history of sports in the state. He'd have been better off talking more about the heyday of the Pacific Coast League, if he was going to go that route.

It's almost as bad as his statement that he's a Christian as if that is at all relevant to this season or his writing. He could worship the orb from The Life Of Brian for all I care, just stick to telling us the story of this unique season in baseball. Sadly, he does but without any verve, style or even common sense. Why not go out and interview some of the players still alive to get their opinions on the 1962 season? All I read in the book is what seems to be regurgitation of quotes from newspaper articles. The bibliography is extensive which is fine, but it does come across in the writing as a book culled strictly by researching other sources.

Given there are many books out there that give first-hand accounts of baseball seasons, this is an extremely poor effort and certainly not what I expected at all. I'll also add that the author expresses way to many personal opinions that have no basis in fact (to wit, he describes Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton, and author of the seminal baseball book Ball Four, with the following: "He was like one of those people who think it better for America to occasionally lose a war and be humiliated, just to make things fair"). Back up statements like that with facts or readers will get the opinion that Steven Travers fits the stereotype of narrow-minded conservative Californians of a certain religious bent.
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