Review:
"Baseball′s greatest team as recounted by baseball′s greatest author, Harvey Frommer. A surefire classic!" —Seth Swirsky, author of Baseball Letters and Something to Write Home About "How great were the ’27 Yankees? So great that even now, 80 years later, they still have the power to astonish and entertain. Reading Five O′Clock Lightning , I felt almost as if I were on the road with the Babe, Lou and Miller Huggins. Harvey Frommer has a great eye for detail and a wonderful ability to bring his characters to life. The book is a delight." ––Jonathan Eig, author of Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrigand and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson′s First Season "Maybe you know a little bit about Eddie Bennett, the hunch–backed, good–luck batboy of the 1927 Yankees. Maybe you don′t. You know it all now with ′Five O′Clock Lighting′...plus the fact that Warren Buffet used little Eddie as part of his strategy to become a megabillionaire. Settle back with Harvey Frommer and enjoy the complicated characters who made up the best baseball team ever. Ride the trains and chew the tobacco and have fun. And don′t spit on Harvey′s shoes." —Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth "Come along with Harvey Frommer on a jaunty stroll through baseball 80 years ago. The 1927 Yankees may or may not have been the best team ever, but surely this is the best book about that wonderful concentration of talent." ––George F. Will "Harvey Frommer hits a home run in this sweet look back at a time when baseball was the only game and the Yankees seemed to be the only team." ––Dan Shaughnessy, author of Senior Year "An engrossing and entertaining look at a mythical baseball team. Ride the trains and chew the tobacco and have fun. And don′t spit on Harvey′s shoes." —Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth "Harvey Frommer brings the perceptive eye of an historian to what was arguably the most feared batting order of all time. Add to that his contagious enthusiasm for classic baseball and you have a most enjoyable book." ––Roger Kahn
Review:
Frommer ( A Yankee Century ; Red Sox vs. Yankees ) spares no detail in this exhaustive but sometimes tedious recounting of the 1927 New York Yankees championship season. The team, which won 110 games when the regular season was eight games shorter than it is today, starred the iconic Babe Ruth and a young Lou Gehrig. Ruth had his career high 60 home run season, and Gehrig batted in a league–leading 175 runs. The Yankees′ trademark rallies were dubbed "Five O′clock Lightning," as they often scored in late innings when the clock struck five (Yankee Stadium in those days had no lights, and most games started at 3:30 p.m.). Frommer sets the stage with a sweeping overview of New York in the 1920s, and then chronologically rehashes the preseason, spring training, each month of the regular season and then the four–game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. He concludes with a chapter containing obituaries of all 31 members of the team, many of whom succumbed at early ages: Gehrig died 14 years after the 1927 season, at the age of 38, and Ruth 21 years later, at 53. Unfortunately, Frommer fails to put together an engaging narrative, simply offering a compendium of facts and statistics. (Nov.) ( Publishers Weekly , September 10, 2007) "Baseball fans, particularly those who root for the Bronx bombers, will devour this book..." ( simcoe.com , Thursday 22nd November)
"Baseball fans, particularly those who root for the Bronx bombers, will devour this book..." ( simcoe.com , Thursday 22nd November)
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