The Last Innocents, Michael Leahy
The Last Innocents, Michael Leahy
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The Last Innocents
The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers

Author: Michael Leahy

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Unabridged: 15 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/28/2017


Synopsis

Legendary Dodgers Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski, and Tommy Davis encapsulated 1960s America: white and black, Jewish and Christian, wealthy and working class, pro-Vietnam and anti-war, golden boy and seasoned veteran. The Last Innocents is a thoughtful, technicolor portrait of these seven players—friends, mentors, confidants, rivals, and allies—and their storied team that offers an intriguing look at a sport and a nation in transition.

Michael Leahy places these men's lives within the political and social maelstrom that was the era when the conformity of the 1950s gave way to demands for equality and rights. Increasingly frustrated over a lack of real bargaining power and an oppressive management who meddled in their personal affairs, the players shared an uneasy relationship with the team's front office. This contention mirrored the discord and uncertainty generated by myriad changes rocking the nation: the civil rights movement, political assassinations, and growing hostility to the escalation of the Vietnam War.

About Michael Leahy

Michael Leahy is the author of Hard Lessons and When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan's Last Comeback. His award-winning career has included thirteen years as a writer for the Washington Post and the Washington Post Magazine. Michael's 2005 Washington Post Magazine story about a California sperm donor won the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award award for best magazine story of the year. His stories have been selected four times for the annual Best American Sports Writing anthologies. He lives outside of Washington D.C.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Chris on June 05, 2016

This was fantastic. It's a lot better than I was expecting. It's an overview of the Dodgers from 1962-66, in their years of glory. That said, it's not a bunch of game accounts. In fact, author Leahy skims over entire seasons at times. He's primarily interested in the people, and we get plenty of dis......more

Goodreads review by Bob on July 01, 2016

Leahy writes, and writes a lot, in a long history of the Los Angeles Dodgers from the 1962-66 seasons when the team won two World Series, three NL pennants, and just missed out on a fourth. The book is told mainly through the lens of two players: Maury Wills and Wes Parker. For the most part, Leahy......more

Goodreads review by Tom on October 15, 2016

Very well written, easy to read book on the 1960's and Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers won three World Series from 1959 to 1965 and played in three World Series from 1963-1966. They were the class of the National League and baseball with a great starting pitching staff of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysd......more

Goodreads review by John on June 27, 2016

An outstanding history of the 1960s and of the Los Angeles Dodgers, with wonderful insight into the culture of the time and of the players on the team.......more

Goodreads review by Greg Sheremeta on July 16, 2020

As 5 year old seeing the Dodgers at the LA Colisuem, they have been my hometown team for years. Many of the names I have forgotten, or was “wow, I don’t remember them on the Dodgers”, but the big names I will always remember. Growing up in the Crenshaw district in the early 60s, I went to elementary......more