Fans of baseball history will enjoy the percolating issues that Hensler brings to the surface as Major League Baseball approached its centennial in 1969…. Hensler’s research is extensive and varied. Happily, he dips deeply into Jim Bouton’s classic baseball diary of the 1969 season, Ball Four, and many other books. He also utilizes documents, periodicals, articles, baseball team publications, special collections and websites. His bibliography is a diverse cross-section of sports, politics, culture, social awareness and history. Hensler provides plenty of background as he introduces each topic, giving the reader a firm basis to understand the events of 1968 and 1969. It is important to take all the elements Hensler writes about as one tapestry, rather than distinct pieces of cloth…. Hensler does a marvelous job of blending all the issues together in a coherent, entertaining narrative.
The Sports Bookie: A sports blog by Bob D'Angelo
10/09/2017
Overall, this book is an excellent account of everything baseball-related for those two years.
The Guy Who Reviews Sports Books
In this engaging text, Hensler—an independent scholar of baseball history—offers a comprehensive analysis of the major shifts that swept through Major League Baseball in the 1968 and 1969 seasons. They included new commissioners, new rules governing pitchers, newer and larger ballparks, the rise of multipurpose stadiums, and baseball's expansion into new cities like San Diego and Seattle. The increase in franchises led to the creation of a new division and a new playoff round, the National and American League Champion Series. Hensler covers other changes that weakened the grip of owners over players and altered the deeper culture of the league. He devotes a chapter to Marvin Miller and to Curt Flood, whose actions presaged the end of the reserve clause and the beginning of free agency. Hensler further chronicles the ways some players immersed themselves in the decade’s profound cultural shifts and openly expressed their views about political issues, such as the war in Vietnam. Overall, Hensler’s engrossing narrative provides insight into the factors that shaped modern-day Major League Baseball. Scholars and baseball fans alike will appreciate Hensler’s research and coverage of one of baseball’s pivotal eras.Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.
The decade that ended in 1969 was one of the most compelling in American history, from an ongoing battle for civil rights to an unpopular war to a string of political assassinations. Baseball was affected by all of those events, and there were changes to the game itself. Hensler, a baseball historian, explores in detail the transformation of the game in a revolutionary decade. The league expanded by 50 percent, from two eight-team leagues to two six-team divisions in each league. The players’ union, under Marvin Miller, was coming of age, and there was a boom in new stadiums. Late in the decade, pitchers dominated the game, prompting rule changes designed to give the hitters a chance (lowering the pitching mound and narrowing the strike zone). Hensler takes readers through it all with an easy narrative style and a real feel for recreating the frenetic atmosphere of the times. An excellent baseball history that will appeal to old and new fans.
Fans of baseball history will enjoy the percolating issues that Hensler brings to the surface as Major League Baseball approached its centennial in 1969…. Hensler’s research is extensive and varied. Happily, he dips deeply into Jim Bouton’s classic baseball diary of the 1969 season, Ball Four, and many other books. He also utilizes documents, periodicals, articles, baseball team publications, special collections and websites. His bibliography is a diverse cross-section of sports, politics, culture, social awareness and history. Hensler provides plenty of background as he introduces each topic, giving the reader a firm basis to understand the events of 1968 and 1969. It is important to take all the elements Hensler writes about as one tapestry, rather than distinct pieces of cloth…. Hensler does a marvelous job of blending all the issues together in a coherent, entertaining narrative.
The Sports Bookie: A sports blog by Bob D’Angelo
The New Boys of Summer is an important contribution to our understanding of the history of baseball as it explores a series of turning points that produced the game as we know it today. Paul Hensler writes about baseball and Americas in the late 1960s with clarity and authority. A must-read.
Anyone who doubted that baseball was a business received stunning lessons in reality in the transformative 1960s. Paul Hensler reminds us just how revolutionary the ‘60s were, on and off the diamond. He reexamines expansion, baseball’s love affair with multi-purpose ballparks and Astroturf, the division play that would lead to playoff expansion, and, most tellingly, the impact of an increasingly powerful players union. It’s a must-read for anyone who seeks to understand baseball, then and now.
Paul Hensler’s The New Boys of Summer: Baseball’s Radial Transformation in the Late Sixties is a fascinating book that builds on the author’s previous work on the changes Major League Baseball faced at the end of the 1960s.. .. Hensler’s book is well conceived, thoroughly researched and easy to read. This is a welcome contribution to the field of baseball history that covers the period that almost significantly laid the ground work for today’s game.
In this engaging text, Hensler—an independent scholar of baseball history—offers a comprehensive analysis of the major shifts that swept through Major League Baseball in the 1968 and 1969 seasons. They included new commissioners, new rules governing pitchers, newer and larger ballparks, the rise of multipurpose stadiums, and baseball's expansion into new cities like San Diego and Seattle. The increase in franchises led to the creation of a new division and a new playoff round, the National and American League Champion Series. Hensler covers other changes that weakened the grip of owners over players and altered the deeper culture of the league. He devotes a chapter to Marvin Miller and to Curt Flood, whose actions presaged the end of the reserve clause and the beginning of free agency. Hensler further chronicles the ways some players immersed themselves in the decade’s profound cultural shifts and openly expressed their views about political issues, such as the war in Vietnam. Overall, Hensler’s engrossing narrative provides insight into the factors that shaped modern-day Major League Baseball. Scholars and baseball fans alike will appreciate Hensler’s research and coverage of one of baseball’s pivotal eras. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.
Fans of baseball history will enjoy the percolating issues that Hensler brings to the surface as Major League Baseball approached its centennial in 1969…. Hensler’s research is extensive and varied. Happily, he dips deeply into Jim Bouton’s classic baseball diary of the 1969 season, Ball Four, and many other books. He also utilizes documents, periodicals, articles, baseball team publications, special collections and websites. His bibliography is a diverse cross-section of sports, politics, culture, social awareness and history. Hensler provides plenty of background as he introduces each topic, giving the reader a firm basis to understand the events of 1968 and 1969. It is important to take all the elements Hensler writes about as one tapestry, rather than distinct pieces of cloth…. Hensler does a marvelous job of blending all the issues together in a coherent, entertaining narrative.
The Sports Bookie: A sports blog by Bob D’Angelo
In this engaging text, Hensler—an independent scholar of baseball history—offers a comprehensive analysis of the major shifts that swept through Major League Baseball in the 1968 and 1969 seasons. They included new commissioners, new rules governing pitchers, newer and larger ballparks, the rise of multipurpose stadiums, and baseball's expansion into new cities like San Diego and Seattle. The increase in franchises led to the creation of a new division and a new playoff round, the National and American League Champion Series. Hensler covers other changes that weakened the grip of owners over players and altered the deeper culture of the league. He devotes a chapter to Marvin Miller and to Curt Flood, whose actions presaged the end of the reserve clause and the beginning of free agency. Hensler further chronicles the ways some players immersed themselves in the decade’s profound cultural shifts and openly expressed their views about political issues, such as the war in Vietnam. Overall, Hensler’s engrossing narrative provides insight into the factors that shaped modern-day Major League Baseball. Scholars and baseball fans alike will appreciate Hensler’s research and coverage of one of baseball’s pivotal eras.
The decade that ended in 1969 was one of the most compelling in American history, from an ongoing battle for civil rights to an unpopular war to a string of political assassinations. Baseball was affected by all of those events, and there were changes to the game itself. Hensler, a baseball historian, explores in detail the transformation of the game in a revolutionary decade. The league expanded by 50 percent, from two eight-team leagues to two six-team divisions in each league. The players’ union, under Marvin Miller, was coming of age, and there was a boom in new stadiums. Late in the decade, pitchers dominated the game, prompting rule changes designed to give the hitters a chance (lowering the pitching mound and narrowing the strike zone). Hensler takes readers through it all with an easy narrative style and a real feel for recreating the frenetic atmosphere of the times. An excellent baseball history that will appeal to old and new fans.
