The Heyday of Willie, Duke, and Mickey

A new perspective on postwar New York City baseball, including the city's Negro League teams In the golden age of baseball, three Major League Baseball teams in New York City vied for supremacy on the diamond, with the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, and New York Yankees each winning at least one World Series. Too often overlooked, the Negro Leagues had five teams in the city fighting for primacy in the sport: the Brooklyn Royal Giants, the New York Lincoln Giants, the New York Black Yankees, the New York Cubans, and, albeit very briefly, the Brooklyn Eagles. In The Heyday of Willie, Duke, and Mickey: New York City Baseball's Golden Age amid Integration, Robert Cottrell highlights a unique period in history when New York City baseball was at its height of dominance, spanning over a decade in postwar America. Cottrell includes detailed coverage of the three years in succession when the Giants, Dodgers, and Yankees won the World Series in the 1950s, featuring star players Willie Mays, Duke Snider, and Mickey Mantle. He also examines the major Black teams of the era, melding the story of New York City baseball with that of the Negro Leagues, Jackie Robinson and the Great Experiment, and the remarkable Black athletes who braved racism and threats to integrate the game. New York City baseball flourished in the postwar years, but its era of dominance wound to a close amid struggles to transform playing fields and America itself. The Heyday of Willie, Duke, and Mickey is a fascinating perspective on the city's teams, players, and integration of the sport.

Robert C. Cottrell was a longtime professor of history and American studies at California State University, Chico. He taught a course for many years on American Popular Culture and offered seminars on baseball and American culture. He is the author of The Best Pitcher in Baseball: The Life of Rube Foster, Negro League Giant; Blackball, the Black Sox, and the Babe: Baseball's Crucial 1920 Season; Two Pioneers: How Hank Greenberg and Jackie Robinson Transformed Baseball-and America; and The Year Without a World Series: Major League Baseball and the Road to the 1994 Players' Strike. He lives in California.

Introduction Chapter 1: Nine of Major League Baseball's Original Ten Cities and the Negro Leagues Chapter 2: Baseball in America's Greatest City Chapter 3: A Full Season of Postwar Baseball Chapter 4: Postwar Baseball as the Negro Leagues Wither Chapter 5: A New Yankee Dynasty Amid the Boys of Summer and Durocher's Giants Chapter 6: New York Baseball Ascends in 1951 Chapter 7: The Yankees and Dodgers at the Top as Mantle Returns and Mays Heads into the Military Chapter 8: Franchise Shift and Wait 'Til Next Year Season, Yet Again Chapter 9: The Giants Win! The Year the Yankees Lose the Pennant, Willie Mays Takes Aim at Ruth's Record, and the Say Hey Kid Makes the Catch Chapter 10: No More Wait 'Til Next Year for Duke Snider and the Brooklyn Dodgers Chapter 11: Stengel's Yankees Rebound as Mickey Mantle Wins the Triple Crown Chapter 12: The New York City Dynasty Winds to a Close Chapter 13: Legacies Bibliography Index About the Author