Compiled by Rob Rains
Spring always marks the start of a new baseball season – and the arrival of several new books about baseball.
This year is no exception, and three of those new books have a connection to the Cardinals and St. Louis.
Here is a quick synopsis of the new offerings, perfect gifts for any baseball fan:
For the Love of Stan Musial; Four boys take a road trip in search of the St. Louis Cardinals’ “Stan the Man”
By Ken Beck, published by Spring Creek Books
This work of fiction takes readers back to 1963 and tells the tale of four 12-year-old boys who decide to take a bus from their southern home town to St. Louis to watch Musial and the Cardinals play a game, knowing that Musial has announced his plans to retire at the end of the season.
Of course the trip isn’t easy – beginning when their bus strands them halfway to St. Louis. Along the way they have to deal with bullies, poison ivy, a haunted cemetery and a less-than-friendly farmer before they finally arrive at their destination.
When the boys finally make it to the stadium for a game against the Mets, all of their efforts were worth it – and they even get to meet their idol after the game.
As the boys return home and head to the playground for their own game, they know it was a trip none of them will ever forget.
Baseball’s Bizarre Season, Recollections of 1964
By Bill Brown
Brown spent 50 years in broadcasting, 37 of which were spent as the television play-by-play voice for the Reds and Astros. For this book, Brown goes back to his childhood home in Sedalia, Mo., where he was a high school student in 1964. Like most young fans of the Cardinals in that era, he spent his summer nights listening to the games on the radio, helping drive his desire to become a broadcaster.
Brown intertwines his personal memories of that year with the historic pennant race, which came down to the final day of the season – when it was possible there could be a three-way tie for first. Before the current playoff era, the team that won the regular season title immediately advanced to the World Series.
Brown presents an analysis of all of the memorable games and moments from that season, leading up to the Cardinals’ dramatic win in game 7 against the Yankees.
Runnin’ Redbirds, the World Champion 1982 St. Louis Cardinals
By Eric Vickrey, published by McFarland and Co.
This is another look back in time at a Cardinals’ World Series championship team, made even more current by the recent death of manager Whitey Herzog.
Vickrey presents a chronological recap of the season, after beginning with the hiring of Herzog in 1980 and a look at the trades he made over the next 18 months that formed the nucleus of the 1982 team.
He includes many stories about the players as the book takes the reader through the season, reaching its climax with a detailed game-by-game analysis of the seven-game World Series against the Brewers.
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