Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Hey, I had to love this book -- and I did. It's the story of the 1944 wartime World Series between the formidable St. Louis Cardinals and the chronic joke called the St. Louis Browns. I was a ten-year-old St. Louis kid, an avid sports fan, and the reality of a city series in my home town on the then western fringe of the major leagues was some kind of Nirvana. It was sheer pleasure for me to live all that again.
"The Boys Who Were Left Behind" brought back a lot of memories and excitement, reminding me of things I'd forgotten, but it also expanded my knowledge and understanding of what the game was like during the hard days of World War II. Most importantly, the pool of talent was depleted by the draft to the point that in 1945 (but not 1944), as the military scraped deeper and deeper into the ranks of the possibly eligible, the Browns actually used a one-armed player, Pete Gray. Some of the players were 4-Fs, physical rejects whose defects precluded duty in the trenches but not limping around the bases of ballparks. Others divided their time between factory work in defense industries and baseball, some being able to play ball only on weekends. Some just plain got lucky.
Stan Musial was one. If a player came from a draft board with a disproportionate number of eligible men and had good fortune with the lottery, he could slide through unscathed, and the Cardinals were particularly blessed in this regard. Musial, enlisting in early 1945 but never called, was able to stay with them throughout the war. The Browns, on the other hand, were not so fortunate, and their 1944 team was a patched together fabric of virtual misfits, alcoholics and retreads who somehow managed to win games.
They won a lot of games, as a matter of fact, including their notable pennant drive in which they won eleven out of their final twelve, including the last four in a row over the New York Yankees. I remember that last day. I was taking an October walk with my parents through the countryside outside the city, carrying a portable radio, and can visually recall our whereabouts at the moment when Chet Laabs hit his critical home run.
The Browns gave the high-powered Cards all they could handle in the Series, much to the delight of the many underdog-lovers in my home town but not this boy. I was a red-dyed Redbird fan even in that time of split loyalties.
The book is not without defects. A Browns rally in a home game is described as occurring "in the top of the fourth". Vernon Stephens is recalled as "one of the best outfielders" when he actually played shortstop. Some names are messed up -- "Roy" Sanders for "Ray", "Jack Jagucki for "Sig", and "Bill" Verban for "Emil". A hit off the right field screen in Sportsman's Park is called "an automatic double", which it was not -- a ball remained in play after it hit the screen. A run is described as scoring on an infield double play -- such would not count. A hit sending Walker Cooper to third is represented as advancing "the Cardinal pitcher" -- Walker was a Cards' catcher, his brother, Mort, a pitcher. Etc. But that's nitpicking, a small detraction from a delightful overall effort.
In short, John Heidenry and Brett Topel bring the wartime era in American history and sport to life in "The Boys Who Were Left Behind", and they do so in 152 succinct but heartfelt pages. They succeed in creating a feeling of the times in general and baseball in particular, touching on the difficulties with travel, supplies, and rationed items and the very real possibility that professional baseball might disappear for the duration. That it did not was a measure of the determination of fans, players and owners but also of the national perception that baseball had importance beyond being simply entertainment. It was our national sport, and no one, including the service people overseas who followed it closely, carped seriously about its continuation. Baseball represented a continuing thread of normalcy in a time of national emergency and in doing so held out the image of placid summer days, relaxed people and better times to come.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Boys Who Were Left Behind: The 1944 World Series between the Hapless St. Louis Browns and the Legendary St. Louis Cardinals
