Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball

by Luke Epplin Narrated by Leon Nixon

Overview

The riveting story of four men-Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige-whose improbable union on the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s would shape the immediate postwar era of Major League Baseball and beyond.

In July 1947, not even three months after Jackie Robinson debuted on the Brooklyn Dodgers, snapping the color line that had segregated Major League Baseball, Larry Doby would follow in his footsteps on the Cleveland Indians. Though Doby, as the second Black player in the majors, would struggle during his first summer in Cleveland, his subsequent turnaround in 1948 from benchwarmer to superstar sparked one of the wildest and most meaningful seasons in baseball history.

In intimate, absorbing detail, Luke Epplin's Our Team traces the story of the integration of the Cleveland Indians and their quest for a World Series title through four key participants: Bill Veeck, an eccentric and visionary owner adept at exploding fireworks on and off the field; Larry Doby, a soft-spoken, hard-hitting pioneer whose major-league breakthrough shattered stereotypes that so much of white America held about Black ballplayers; Bob Feller, a pitching prodigy from the Iowa cornfields who set the template for the athlete as businessman; and Satchel Paige, a legendary pitcher from the Negro Leagues whose belated entry into the majors whipped baseball fans across the country into a frenzy.

Together, as the backbone of a team that epitomized the postwar American spirit in all its hopes and contradictions, these four men would captivate the nation by storming to the World Series--all the while rewriting the rules of what was possible in sports.

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books

"Epplin's epic saga is simultaneously a riveting drama and a searing portrait of the racism that plagued baseball for decades. This sharp and well-documented history will be a hit with baseball lovers and general interest readers alike." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review

Editorial Reviews

AUGUST 2021 - AudioFile

In a serious tone that captures the significance of breaking the color barrier and with a flair for portraying quirky characters, narrator Leon Nixon guides listeners through the lives of four men who transformed the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series in 1948. Larry Doby was signed a few months after Jackie Robinson; then aging Negro Leagues legend Satchel Paige finally got a call. White manager Bill Veeck used gag prizes and fireworks to attract fans, and pitcher Bob Feller pioneered athletics marketing to the public. Doby’s loneliness is clear in Nixon’s performance as the frosty reception he received from teammates and his relegation to segregated hotel rooms are described. The nuances are perfect, both for the underdog story and the narration. A.B. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

★ 01/25/2021

Sportswriter Epplin debuts with an inspirational account of the rise of the newly racially integrated 1940s Cleveland Indians, focusing on four remarkable men—players Larry Doby, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige, and team owner Bill Veeck. As Epplin follows the arc of the Indians’ 1948 season, he offers nuanced portraits of the team’s key figures. Pitcher Feller is the disciplined businessman who admires Black players, though not without a bit of patronization. Fellow pitcher Paige is larger-than-life, cocky, determined to join the Major Leagues, and resentful of his secondary status as a Black pitcher. Doby is the shy Black center fielder (and second player to break the color barrier) whose remarkable athletic skill became crucial in the team’s World Series run. Veeck, meanwhile, is characterized by his determination to integrate the American League by signing Doby and Paige. The thrilling game-by-game survey of the Indians’ roller-coaster season culminates in a rousing World Series win. Epplin’s epic saga is simultaneously a riveting drama and a searing portrait of the racism that plagued baseball for decades. This sharp and well-documented history will be a hit with baseball lovers and general interest readers alike. (Mar.)

From the Publisher

"Epplin has a journalist's eye for narrative and gives a dramatic account of the season and the series." —Wall Street Journal

“If you love baseball, Our Team is a three-run walk-off homer in Game 7 of the World Series. And if you care about justice, Epplin’s book is a crucial lesson in the fight for civil rights in post-World War II Cleveland.” —Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senator from Ohio and author of Desk 88

“One of the most entertaining and important baseball books to come out in years. OUR TEAM’s Cleveland Indians of 1948 finally get the respect, the insight — the historical attention — they deserve. Think you know about baseball’s integration years? On the heels of Jackie Robinson’s breakthrough came another team beset with perhaps even more challenges and half the publicity. Luke Epplin brings all the drama, the strife, the unity and the ultimate triumph to you — with the flair of a Satchel Paige windup, the power of a Larry Doby swing, and the panache of a Bill Veeck promotion!” —Laurie Gwen Shapiro

“From sandlots to stadiums, Luke Epplin generously offers up the best seat in the stands to revisit when both America and its greatest pastime were changing. Even as the color line impacted the best Black players’ access and opportunities, Our Team is a riveting reminder of the unifying power of sports—and the compelling men who sought to change America one game at a time.” —Caseen Gaines, author of Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way

Library Journal

03/01/2021

At first glance, one might wonder how the 1948 Cleveland Indians warrant a book. But then one stops to consider its cast of characters: Bill Veeck, team owner and impresario extraordinaire; Bob Feller, an Iowa farm boy whose blazing fastball elevated him to rock star status in the late 1930s and 1940s; Larry Doby, Major League Baseball's second Black player, who in many ways had a harder battle than Jackie Robinson, his predecessor; and last, but far from least, iconic Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige, who at over age 40 was finally admitted to the majors. Epplin, a veteran freelance writer, shows us how Veeck brought together these disparate parts to transform a beleaguered franchise into world champions. But he also shows that it wasn't easy: Veeck battled numerous surgeries, while constantly promoting his team even from hospital beds; Feller became a fallen star, excoriated for tending more to his money-making ventures than pitching; Doby battled the racism of fans, opponents, and his own teammates; and Paige fought both racism and aging. VERDICT Epplin has given us an entertaining account of this ball club, and we find ourselves rooting for them in the end. An enjoyable read for all sports fans.—Jim Burns, formerly with Jacksonville P.L., FL

AUGUST 2021 - AudioFile

In a serious tone that captures the significance of breaking the color barrier and with a flair for portraying quirky characters, narrator Leon Nixon guides listeners through the lives of four men who transformed the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series in 1948. Larry Doby was signed a few months after Jackie Robinson; then aging Negro Leagues legend Satchel Paige finally got a call. White manager Bill Veeck used gag prizes and fireworks to attract fans, and pitcher Bob Feller pioneered athletics marketing to the public. Doby’s loneliness is clear in Nixon’s performance as the frosty reception he received from teammates and his relegation to segregated hotel rooms are described. The nuances are perfect, both for the underdog story and the narration. A.B. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2020-12-22
A vigorous history of a little-known episode in the integration of professional sports.

Jackie Robinson came first, of course, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. For that reason, writes Epplin, “it is perhaps inevitable that the second team in Major League Baseball to integrate in the twentieth century would be overshadowed by the first.” But in that season and the next, that second team, the Cleveland Indians, brought on two Black players. The first, renowned pitcher Satchel Paige, is well known today; by that time, he was already in his 40s and had been knocking around in the Negro Leagues for more than two decades, “someone who was incongruously both a major-league rookie and a baseball legend.” Paige did not disappoint, striking fear in the hearts of those who faced him on the mound. The second player, Larry Doby, is less well known, but Epplin brings him vividly to life. The author provides an indelible portrait of the duo galloping across the season, giving the Indians a World Series win in 1948. In this deeply researched account, the author also chronicles the contributions of two White men: team owner Bill Veeck and pitcher Bob Feller, who once could “throw a fastball that some major leaguers deemed the swiftest they’d ever encountered.” Feller had been having a bad time of it, but Indians fans flocked to Paige. Not only did Veeck integrate Cleveland stadium—at one game against the Dodgers, “one out of every six Black residents in Cleveland was in attendance”—he consistently demonstrated his skills as a showman. Quite apart from his role in bringing Black players into the game (Doby considered him a second father), Veeck also pioneered between-innings giveaways, pregame shows, postgame firework displays, and other standard tropes of modern pro baseball, contributions that have been largely unsung.

Social and sports history meet capably in this eventful account, a boon for baseball fans.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173247575
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	03/30/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,168,582

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