Books

The Victory Season

The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age
By Robert Weintraub (Hardcover Book, 2013)
The triumphant story of baseball and America after World War II

In 1945 Major League Baseball had become a ghost of itself. Parks were half empty, the balls were made with fake rubber, and mediocre replacements roamed the fields, as hundreds of players, including the game's biggest stars, were serving abroad, devoted to unconditional Allied victory in World War II.

But by the spring of 1946, the country was ready to heal. The war was finally over, and as America's fathers and brothers were coming home, so too were the sport's greats. Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio returned with bats blazing, making the season a true classic that ended in a thrilling seven-game World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. America also witnessed the beginning of a new era in baseball-it was a year of attendance records, the first year Yankee Stadium held night games, the last year the Green Monster wasn't green, and, most significant, Jackie Robinson's first year playing in the Brooklyn Dodgers' system.

The Victory Season brings to vivid life these years of baseball and war, including the littleknown "World Series" that servicemen played in a captured Hitler Youth stadium in the fall of 1945. Robert Weintraub's extensive research and vibrant storytelling enliven the legendary season that embodies what we now think of as the game's golden era.

Full Description
Buy This Book
  • Little, Brown and Company

    • Format: Hardcover Book

    • Price: $27.99 US/$29.99 CAN

    • ISBN-13: 9780316205917

    • On Sale Date: 04/02/2013

    • Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

    Full Details

    Formats Available: Hardcover Book, Electronic Book

  • Newsletter

    Don't miss updates about our authors, including book tour info and new book releases.

    Sign Up

The triumphant story of baseball and America after World War II

In 1945 Major League Baseball had become a ghost of itself. Parks were half empty, the balls were made with fake rubber, and mediocre replacements roamed the fields, as hundreds of players, including the game's biggest stars, were serving abroad, devoted to unconditional Allied victory in World War II.

But by the spring of 1946, the country was ready to heal. The war was finally over, and as America's fathers and brothers were coming home, so too were the sport's greats. Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio returned with bats blazing, making the season a true classic that ended in a thrilling seven-game World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. America also witnessed the beginning of a new era in baseball-it was a year of attendance records, the first year Yankee Stadium held night games, the last year the Green Monster wasn't green, and, most significant, Jackie Robinson's first year playing in the Brooklyn Dodgers' system.

The Victory Season brings to vivid life these years of baseball and war, including the littleknown "World Series" that servicemen played in a captured Hitler Youth stadium in the fall of 1945. Robert Weintraub's extensive research and vibrant storytelling enliven the legendary season that embodies what we now think of as the game's golden era.

Robert Weintraub is the author of The House That Ruth Built and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times sports pages. He is a sports columnist for Slate, and his writing has also aired on ESPN, ABC Sports, CBS Sports, and dozens of other outlets. He lives in Decatur, Georgia.


  • THE VICTORY SEASON by Robert Weintraub

  • Praise for The Victory Season:

    "The baseball history makes great reading, but the larger story of our sometimes painful transition to peacetime gives the book its staying power. Fine popular history." -- Booklist (starred review)

  • "A meticulously researched and elegantly written chronicle of what happened in 1946... From start to finish, The Victory Season is a home run." -- Fort Worth Star-Telegram

  • "The Victory Season leaps off the page like a newsreel." -- Allen Barra, Chicago Tribune

  • "As Robert Weintraub's measured, elegant prose illustrates, "The Victory Season" makes an irrefutable case that baseball's golden age begins in 1946. Grade: Grand slam." -- Mark Hodermarsky, Cleveland Plain Dealer

  • "We see a lot of baseball books each spring, but few will be more supremely entertaining than The Victory Season... Impossibly charming... A winning account." -- Newsday

  • "Even if you think you know the history of baseball, Weintraub will surprise you with many gems from his meticulous research. The Victory Season is an important work featuring an all-star cast." -- James Miller, co-author of Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN

  • "There was more to baseball in 1946 than Ted Williams and Stan Musial marching home from war. The tectonic plates were shifting beneath the game's surface as the color line developed its first cracks and greedy team owners unwittingly inspired baseball's labor movement. With a Halberstam-like sense of purpose, Robert Weintraub captures it all in The Victory Season." -- John Schulian, co-editor of At the Fights, author of Sometimes They Even Shook Your Hand

  • "Bright writing and the sweat of painstaking research bring baseball's Greatest Generation to life in this tale of a poignant and pivotal season in the game's history. Robert Weintraub's magic trick is to make you feel as if you're watching Leo Durocher, Ted Williams and company in real time." -- John Eisenberg, author of Ten-Gallon War: The NFL's Cowboys, the AFL's Texans, and the Feud for Dallas's Pro Football Future

  • "In the tradition of Robert W. Creamer's classic 'Baseball in '41,' Robert Weintraub's 'The Victory Season' doesn't merely revisit a pivotal baseball season, it places that season in a larger historical and cultural context. It is a season - and a book - to be relished, as America returns to a very familiar place: at home, at peace, and ready to follow DiMaggio, Musial, Williams, and their compatriots across another glorious summer." -- Michael MacCambridge, author of America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured A Nation

  • "Rob Weintraub has written a fascinating tale of a pivotal year for baseball and America. The research and storytelling are first-rate." -- Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season

  • Praise for The House that Ruth Built:

    "The whole baseball year of 1923 is the frame for Weintraub's elegantly constructed narrative...There is no nickname ever used for a player that Weintraub overlooks nor any colorful phrase now common in baseball that he doesn't cite...a treasure for the fan who cannot get enough." -- Booklist (starred review)

  • "Weintraub enlivens his book with a cast of remarkable characters, starting with the Babe himself...a book about New York baseball in the 1920s, a sporting scene ripe with fascinating possibilities that Mr. Weintraub mines thoroughly for his spirited book." -- Bob Hoover, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

  • "Just when you thought there were no great seasons left uncovered -- or anything new left to say about Babe Ruth -- here comes The House that Ruth Built.  Robert Weintraub has resurrected the 1923 season and showed us how it changed baseball that season and every season that has followed it.  A perfect match of the team, the year, and the writer." -- Allen Barra, author of Yogi Berra and The Last Coach

  • "Robert Weintraub beautifully details the building of the iconic park and the World Series in which Ruth became a legend." -- Dick Kreck, Denver Post

  • "Compelling and entertaining history of the 1923 season." -- Jody Seaborn, Austin American-Statesman

  • "Weintraub is a very lively writer: he makes it all fresh and newly intriguing, adding in a whiff of Damon Runyon's saltiness and introducing readers to some of the idioms of the era. Bracing and fun for all baseball buffs, whether or not fans of today's Bombers." -- Library Journal (starred review)

  • "Robert Weintraub [is] a leading American sports columnist." -- The Economist

Formats

Product Details

The Victory Season
  • Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
  • Price: $27.99 US/$29.99 CAN
  • Pages: 464
  • Physical Dimensions: 6" x 9-1/4"
  • ISBN-13: 9780316205917
  • On Sale Date: 04/02/2013
Also By This Author
The Victory Season
© 2013 Hachette Book Group