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Two Spectacular Seasons

By Dr. John D. Eigenauer
July 28, 2006

William B. Mead’s Two Spectacular Seasons is the story of baseball’s 1930 and 1968 seasons. He chose them because they were antithetical and extreme: 1930 was dominated by hitters and 1968 by pitchers. Unfortunately, the seasons do not lend themselves to comparison (or contrast) quite as easily as one might think. The result is that Mead’s book is a loose collection of anecdotes, quotes, and statistics having to do with those two seasons, but which do not cohere in any way.

The chapters are organized thematically around a quote from someone who coached or managed in the season in question. A chapter on Hack Wilson is titled, “He ain’t got no neck”; one that has something to do with the 1930 Dodgers is titled, “The wind caught the ball... and it conked me. It could have happened to anybody.” Another that treats Bob Gibson is titled, “Gibson’s got some kind of vicious desire…. Hell, he’d challenge Michael the Archangel, if he had to.” The quirky titles are appropriate for the equally quirky writing in the chapters, which is discursive to the point of being distracting. These chapters possess little thematic unity, leading the reader to wonder what the point was by the end of each one.

According to my count, Mead has written six baseball books: Even the Browns (also known as Baseball Goes to War), Baseball: The President’s Game, Inside Game: Baseball’s Master Strategists, Official New York Yankee Hater’s Handbook, The Explosive Sixties: Baseball’s Decade of Expansion, and the current book). I would expect an author of six baseball books to know rudimentary facts. He states that Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1962 (it was 1961), that Al Simmons of the Philadelphia A’s played in the Baker Bowl (the Phillies played in the Baker Bowl), and that Bob Gibson holds the record for the lowest ERA in a season (Dutch Leonard holds the record). One might err on attendance counts for the 1941 Browns or on the number of steals that Donie Bush had in 1922, but an experienced baseball writer should know the single season records for home runs and ERA (Maris still held the record when Mead wrote the book). This carelessness leads to loss of credibility.

Donie Bush For the record, Donie Bush had 1 stolen base in 1922 (though he finished with 404).

The book’s saving grace ought to have been the interviews, which Mead did with players from both seasons. But even these turn out flat, with droning clichés about how so-and-so “really could play” and repeated variations of, “Boy, I’ll tell ya, he was a good one.” A chance to interview people who played with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx, Rogers Hornsby, Mel Ott, and Dizzy Dean should guarantee interest. I am sorry to say that Mead simply blew his opportunity to capture numerous potentially fascinating experiences.

It may seem strange that I chose to review a stinky out-of-print book, but I have my reasons. First, I want to remind my serious readers of their potential as researchers and writers to create valuable baseball history and analysis. Quite frankly, anyone could have written this book and most anyone could have done a better job. Second, I want to suggest that researchers and writers cooperate more to produce quality books. No writer working with someone else would have said that Al Simmons played in the Baker Bowl, or that Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1962 because someone in a team of writers would have caught the mistakes. And surely several people working together would have figured out that interviewing Al Lopez or Sparky Adams was a chance of a lifetime.

Most of all, baseball historians and analysts ought to remember that the goal of creating a book is not to get published, but to advance knowledge. It might be exciting and tempting to think of a neat title above your name, but the glory comes when others adopt your ideas because those ideas provide insight into previously misunderstood phenomena. A book should emerge from effortless determination to understand and not from the image of a finished product. Set your ego aside, learn all you can, and make your ideas public. We are, after all, still trying to identify dozens of books by William James Sidis.

John Eigenauer can be contacted at jeigenauer@yahoo.com. A complete list of his reviews and more about him can be found here.