Review of "Final Game at Ebbets Field"

Don't let the title of this book fool you - there is much more to it than just the game described in the title.  While that caught me by surprise, I am glad I kept on reading as there are some very interesting stories in this book.  Here is my review.

  

Title/Author:

“The Final Game at Ebbets Field and Other True Accounts of Baseball’s Golden Age” by Noel Hynd

Tags:

Baseball, professional, Giants, Dodgers, Yankees, Athletics, Braves, Red Sox

Publish date:

June 27, 2019

Length:

221 pages

Rating: to

4 of 5 stars (Very Good)

Review:

Having read this author previously with his excellent account of the New York Giants, I fully expected this book to be a great retelling of the last game played at Ebbets Field, which took place on September 24, 1957. That was only the first chapter as Noel Hynd shares many stories about baseball from it’s Golden Age in the 1940’s and 1950’s in this collection.

After the initial surprise that the story of the final home game of the Brooklyn Dodgers only took a few pages, it is advised for a reader to continue on as there are many other great stories about the Dodgers and some other teams as well, most notably the New York Giants. In an ironic twist, one of the stories is about the last game the Giants played at the Polo Grounds before they, too, moved to California.  I enjoyed this story more than the title essay as the last Giants game of 1957 seemed to have much richer detail, especially about the fans.

Speaking of the Polo Grounds, one other story that is worth mentioning is that a member of the grounds crew of that park was living at that park, as an apartment was constructed underneath the stands and that man along with his wife and child were able to maintain residence there so he would be available whenever he was needed. 

Like any other collection of stories, this one has a few that fall short of excellent, but they are outnumbered by the good ones.  Readers who are interested in learning some interesting stories about baseball from that era will want to check out this book.

                                                                       

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)                                                                                                                                

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Final-Game-Ebbets-Field-Philadelphia/dp/1074174763/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=