Fifty years ago, as baseball faced crises on and off the field, two larger-than-life figures took center stage, each on a quest to reinvent the national pastime.
In this short documentary, Michael Shapiro, author of the upcoming book Bottom of the Ninth, and other baseball experts talk about what this moment meant for baseball and America.
Video produced by Mariel S. Clark, Alan Haburchak and Chris Kieffer
Praise for Bottom of the Ninth
“Romance (of a sort), betrayal (short of literal backstabbing), conniving potentates, territorial maneuverings, midsummer dreams. Shakespeare? Tolstoy? No, it’s a wonderfully crafted nonfiction book by Michael Shapiro, Bottom of the Ninth, with baseball machinations and great baseball characters the central subject. Read it. You’ll see what I mean.” – Ira Berkow, author of Full Swing and The Corporal Was a Pitcher
“Baseball is all about good stories. In this well-conceived and graceful book, Michael Shapiro wraps the superb story of the 1960 World Series within the intriguing tale of Branch Rickey’s concurrent efforts to start a new league—the Continental League. Shapiro argues that baseball made a crucial and irreversible error by aborting that league. Not surprisingly, the on-field stuff outdoes the business stuff, but only barely. A good read.” – Fay Vincent, former commissioner of baseball and author of The Only Game in Town and We Would Have Played for Nothing
“Michael Shapiro shines a warm and penetrating light into the largely forgotten era of baseball in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when New York still had the Yankees, but the Dodgers and Giants had fled and the Mets were yet to be. Bottom of the Ninth is a treat for anyone who loves the game or suffers over its stumbles.” – David Margolick, author of Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink
Available from any of these online booksellers:
