Summer of '98

By Mike Lupica

Book Overview

A wonderfully lyrical tale of the season that put poetry back into baseball... The best book yet by America's finest sportswriter. - Pete Hamill. Here is what makes Mike Lupica so good - he is a gifted writer with the skills of a first-rate reporter and the honest sentiment of a lifelong fan. Here is what makes this book so good - baseball's summer of '98 provided authentic moments of poetry and passion, the kind of stuff that shines through all the crassness and nonsense, to remind us all why we can still care. I'd say the storyteller is a damn good match for the story. - Bob Costas, NBC Sports. This isn't just one of the best books you'll ever read about baseball. It's one of the best books you'll ever read about fathers and sons. And one more thing: in this one, I said everything Mike said I said. - Yoggi Berra. No one writes about baseball's glorious sporting scene better than Mike Lupica, and this was one of the greatest glory years of all. - Tom Brokaw, NBC News. From one of sportswriting's best-known commentators comes a funny, moving, and unconventional exploration of a glorious baseball season. Maris hit another, Mantle went two-for-four, the Yanks won. That was Lupica's best summer ever. He thought he'd never have another like it - until the summer of '98, when he found himself leaving notes for his own sons: Sosa hit another, McGwire hit one back. And the Yanks won. With humor and feeling, Lupica recaptures the season that made everyone stand up and cheer, but not in any ordinary way. His is also a story of fathers and sons - about the golden thread that stretches through baseball and, for Lupica, from his father to himself to his sons. I cannot tell you why baseball is passed on the way it is, more than the other sports. I just know it came first with me. It was something I shared with my father, and still share today. It was a special language we had, at the ballpark, in the front seat of a '56 Dodge, watching on television. Talking on the telephone the night McGwire hit No. 62, all that time after we had watched Maris hit No. 61. A love that fits inside a bigger love, like a ball in a mitt.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809224445
• ISBN13: 9780809224449
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Stroll down Memory Lane

This book is a great account of the best baseball season of all time. Lupica uses his great writing style to bring out every major story of the season, giving each one equal attention and a unique spin on it. This book is a tremendous addition to a library, and one I plan to have my kids read when they ask about the Home Run Chase of '98. It not only tells the stories, but gives Lupica's version, with his thoughts and memories. The effect is that I would then pause, and remember the college final I was 15 minutes late for to watch Wood's 20 K's, the 25 jumping idiots in a dorm room slapping five and hugging when Mac hit 70, and it goes on. It is just a great book, from an insider's perspective.

Covers more than baseball, rather, is about life

Lupica did a fantastic job of not only capturing the baseball season of 1998 and all it's glory, but also sharing the importance of family relationships. If baseball is a part of your family, you should read this book!

It was aswome (easiest way to say it!)

Read this book if you don't mind the 1998 season! I read it over and over. The 1998 season was magical, and we will never see anthor season like it, for a long time if ever! I think this book is also good of people that want to know how the season took over people, that becamne more then causal fans. It gives you a look at his family, and how they went through the season! READ IT!

Loved the baseball facts plus the father-son aspect

I, too, just finished this book in one sitting. It brought back memories of this past '98 season as well as memories of my own family, my three boys who all went through Little League and beyond, and their father who had been their coach. Our family has a bond partly due to baseball. One son at 52 is still playing tournament baseball, the another son is managing a Little League team. Lupica's accounts of the collection of baseball memorabilia and baseball cards parallels the goings on of my sons and their three sons. It was a delightful read for me. Not everybody's cup of tea, perhaps, if one is not a "baseball family," but perfect for a family that loves the sport. Good going, Mike Lupica

INSPIRING ACCOUNT OF A GREAT SEASON.

INSPIRING ACCOUNT OF A GREAT SEASON.IT MADE ME REALIZE THAT BASEBALL WILL ALWAYS BE A GREAT GAME AND IT CAN BE PASSED ON FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION.THANKS,MIKE FOR WRITING A GREAT BOOK.