Our Team, Luke Epplin
Our Team, Luke Epplin
8 Rating(s)
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Our Team
The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball

Author: Luke Epplin

Narrator: Leon Nixon

Unabridged: 10 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/30/2021


Synopsis

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

About Luke Epplin

LUKE EPPLIN’s writing has appeared online in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, GQ, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, and The Paris Review Daily. Born and raised in rural Illinois, Luke now lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tim on July 30, 2022

The Cleveland Indians won the World Series in 1948, for the first time since 1920 and the last time since, well, ever. This is the story of this team told through 4 men. Bill Veeck bought the team in 1946. You might know of him from his wacky stunts, like sending up a little person to bat, or the “Dis......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on July 19, 2021

In this meticulously researched book, the author Luke Epplin focuses on four figures: Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, Larry Doby and Leroy "Satchel" Paige. Each of these men are at different stages in their lives and careers when their efforts catapult the 1948 Cleveland Indians to the World Series. This bo......more

Goodreads review by Trevor on May 18, 2021

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in 1947, and his time with the Brooklyn Dodgers that season has rightfully gone down in the history books as a significant event in American history. But Robinson wasn't alone; soon after he began to make an impact as an everyday player, other team......more