The Victory Season

Author Robert Weintraub visits the Jewish Community Center this Sunday, Oct. 27 to talk about his book , The Victory Season: the End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age, along with The Citadel’s associate athletic director Andy Solomon.
In 1945 Major League Baseball had become a ghost of itself. Parks were half empty, the balls were made with fake rubber, and mediocre replacements roamed the fields, as hundreds of players, including the game’s biggest stars, were serving abroad, devoted to unconditional Allied victory in World War II.
But by the spring of 1946, the country was ready to heal. The war was finally over, and as America’s fathers and brothers were coming home, so too were the sport’s greats. Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio returned with bats blazing, making the season a true classic that ended in a thrilling seven-game World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals, the same two teams who happen to be facing off in this year’s Fall Classic.
America also witnessed the beginning of a new era in baseball — it was a year of attendance records, the first year Yankee Stadium held night games, the last year Boston’s “Green Monster” wasn’t green, and, most significant, Jackie Robinson’s first year playing in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ system.
The Victory Season brings to vivid life these years of baseball and war, including the little-known “World Series” that servicemen played in a captured Hitler Youth stadium in the fall of 1945.
Weintraub lives in Decatur, Ga., but he grew up in the large shadow cast by Yankee Stadium, in Rye, N.Y., and is a lifelong Yankees fan. Weintraub has written about sports for Slate, Play (the late, lamented NY Times sports magazine), ESPN.com, The Guardian, Deadspin, and many more. His extensive research and vibrant storytelling enliven the legendary season that embodies what we now think of as the game’s golden era.
 
Robert Weintraub, author of The Victory Season: the End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age, will speak at the Jewish Community Center at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 27. Cost is $10 for JCC members and $14 non-members and includes bagel brunch. The JCC is located at 1645 Raoul Wallenberg Blvd. For more information, call 571-6565 or visit www.charlestonjcc.org.