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Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion Kindle Edition

by Roger Angell (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 176 ratings
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A chronicle of our national pastime’s most unforgettable era from the bestselling author of The Summer Game—“No one writes better about baseball” (The Boston Globe).
  Classic New Yorker sportswriter Roger Angell calls 1972 to 1976 “the most important half-decade in the history of the game.” The early to mid-1970s brought unprecedented changes to America’s ancient pastime: astounding performances by Nolan Ryan and Hank Aaron; the intensity of the “best-ever” 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox; the changes growing from bitter and extended labor strikes and lockouts; and the vast new influence of network television on the game. Angell, always a fan as well as a writer, casts a knowing but noncynical eye on these events, offering a fresh perspective to baseball’s continuing appeal during this brilliant and transformative era.
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  1. Print length
    432 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Open Road Media
  5. Publication date
    February 5, 2013
  6. File size
    2898 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A book for people who miss good writing, who miss clarity, lucidity, style and passion. It’s a book for all seasons.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Roger Angell is the clear-eyed poet laureate of baseball. His books are like long, wonderful strings of base hits by the home team.” —New York Post

“Angell . . . comes from the magazine writer’s school of sportswriting: calm, meditative, not deadline driven or space cramped, free to follow the fast-and-slow, squeeze-and-relax rhythms of the game.” —Time

“Roger Angell is a stunning writer. . . . A writer who can translate the nuances of the game with perfect clarity.” —The Wall Street Journal

Review

"Fans know that Angell, fiction editor for The New Yorker, is one of the heavy hitters of baseball writing. Dating back to 1977 and 1972, respectively, these are two of his finest collections. Essential for public and academic libraries."-Library Journal (Library Journal )

"Roger Angell is a stunning writer.. A writer who can translate the nuances of the game with perfect clarity."-Tim McCarver, Wall Street Journal (Tim McCarver Wall Street Journal )

"Angell is best known for ''The Summer Game,'' in which he revolutionized baseball writing by bringing an essayist''s eye to the ballpark. This collection, though, is even better, tracking the sport through the mid-1970s and opening with one of Angell''s signature efforts-an evocative meditation on the ball itself."-Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles Times )

"A book for people who miss good writing, who miss clarity, lucidity, style and passion. It's a book for all seasons."-New York Times Book Review (New York Times Book Review )

"Angell's passion for baseball is enough to convert the heathen."-Time (Time )

"No one writes better about baseball."-Boston Globe (Boston Globe )

"Roger Angell is our best writer on baseball."-Newswee (Newsweek )

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00B1MSHMO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (February 5, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 5, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2898 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 176 ratings

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Roger Angell

Roger Angell

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
176 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

LSmith
5.0 out of 5 stars Roger Angell is simply the best
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2018
Verified Purchase
Frankly, another review of a book in which the topic is baseball and the author is Roger Angell cannot either a) do justice to the book or b) say anything that hasn’t already been said. This collection of baseball essays from his days of writing for the New Yorker covers the time period of the 1972 -1976 seasons.

During this time frame, anything a reader can think of is covered. Scouting? Yes, a wonderful conversation with a long-time scout for the then-California Angels is retold. Business? Between the strike over player pension funds in 1972 (the first strike by the fairly new Major League Baseball Players Union) and the lockout during spring training in 1976, that’s covered. Fans? One wonderful chapter on three lifelong Detroit Tigers fans will have the reader both laughing and crying.

Of course, there’s plenty about the game on the field as well. Readers who were fans of the game at that time will enjoy reading about all of the star players. Everyone from Hank Aaron to Joe Morgan is mentioned as well as the best teams of that era – the Oakland A’s who won the World Series three consecutive seasons, the Big Red Machine otherwise known as the Cincinnati Red and the resurgence of the New York Yankees. Being a New Yorker, Angell also writes passionately about the New York Mets, which makes for some of the best reading in the book.

This review just scratches the surface of describing how much a baseball fan will enjoy this book, whether or not he or she was a fan of this period of baseball. Angell is an author whose books simply must be read by all baseball fans, no matter their age or team loyalties. Those who have read anything by him know what I mean – those that haven’t, this is one to pick up to get a glimpse into the immense talent he has for writing about the American Pastime.
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Thonza
5.0 out of 5 stars And such a great crossing of veterans closing their careers
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2015
Verified Purchase
Another magnificent account of baseball seasons past. Though turbulent, these were special times as baseball transformed into the modern era. Yeah, the old garde wanes during the saga, and as a child of the sixties, I too lament the loss of the golden era, but a just as colorful and exciting baseball era emerged. And such a great crossing of veterans closing their careers, youthful but now seasoned veterans taking the reins, and a melting pot of young guns exploding on the scene.

Angell is the perfect scribe for capturing it, as he remains almost objective to a fault, sensitive to those who experience the fear of the passing of baseball's last "innocent" period, or at least it's illusion of innocence, and articulates it probably better than any other who writes about America's sporting nature.

The essay covering the three aging Detroit Tiger fans is not only interesting but documents the bridge of past and the present, but from the depression era to the golden age, and now into a third era... That was so cool when I realized upon reading this the first time in the late 70's: major league baseball bridges it's generations without us knowing it at the time...

I now not only keep a keen eye out for the ballet of base coverage, cutoff man alignment, and backup, but also try to judge when there is a crossing of stars from one, two or if your lucky, three eras of great players.
4 people found this helpful
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Michael M. Wolfe
4.0 out of 5 stars Angell's writing only improves with time.
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2013
Verified Purchase
I initially picked up this book because the five seasons Angell writes about were from the 70's, when my own love for baseball was at its peak. I figured my memories of those seasons and my love for Angell's prose would make for an almost sure winner. I was not disappointed.

Forget that the five seasons he writes about are now nearly 50 years in the past, that many of the players he talks about are better known today as Managers, or that several of his young stars are not only retired, but have sons whose own careers have ended. Angell's love for the game of baseball and his ability to communicate that love through his words make this a delightful read.

Surprisingly, some of the books weaker moments are its descriptions of individual games or players. It is when Angell moves "outside the lines" and writes about the scouts, the owners, and the fans that he hits his stride. The chapters focused on the three middle aged men who are lifelong Tiger fans; the afternoon spent in Candlestick Park talking with the late Horace Stoneham; the days traveling with a scout to watch young prospects, reveal more about the beauty of the game of baseball than his descriptions of great play-off or World Series games (not that those sections aren't first rate writing as well).

Regardless of the topic, Angell's prose is,as always, a pleasure. His wit, his clarity and his insights make this an enjoyable read for anyone who loves either baseball or good writing.
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James R. Gilligan
5.0 out of 5 stars Just another masterpiece by baseball's best writer
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2017
Verified Purchase
Roger Angell has been doubly blessed with a passionate love for baseball and an undeniable talent for writing. Fortunately, for us, he combines these two elements of his character quite often. In this collection of essays, he turns his enlightened lens on the 1972-1976 major league baseball seasons, which featured landmark events like Hank Aaron’s 715th home run, the Amazin’ Mets of 1973, the birth of the free agent era, and Carlton Fisk’s incredible shot in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series at Fenway.

Angell’s pellucid prose animates these events, and many others, in a way that will instantly recall them to the forefront of your memory—if you were lucky enough to live through them—or make you wish you’d witnessed them if they somehow escaped the scope of your life. Angell also examines some everyday fans like three rabid Detroit devotees as well as some of the game’s invisible stars like professional scouts.

A true baseball lover couldn’t do much better than to read anything Angell has ever written about the game. From the months of November through February, nothing fills the baseball void as Angell does.
7 people found this helpful
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