Baseball: The Game Face

A Two-Faced Game.

Baseball had two faces during the 1960s, one shown on the field, the other in the board room. On the field baseball was a glorious game played by enthusiastic athletes who seemed truly to enjoy their participation in the nation's game. Their performances were spectacular as they demonstrated skills that reshaped the game.

1960: Stengel Retires.

The 1960s began with a changing of the guard. Casey Stengel, arguably the greatest manager of modern times, was forced to retire at the age of seventy. He was down but not out. A year later he returned to baseball as the bemused manager of the expansion team New York Mets. Ted Williams, the great Boston Red Sox hitter, retired in his nineteenth season at the age of forty-two; he hit .316 his last season. The New York Yankees hit 193 home runs in 1960, the most ever in an American League season, but their hitting power was inadequate to secure a World Series...

[The entire page is 1328 words long]

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