The Best Game Ever: Pirates vs. Yankees, October 13, 1960 (review)

The Oral History Association’s 2008 annual meeting was held in Pittsburgh last October, as the World Series and the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election approached. While the Pittsburgh Pirates were not in the playoffs—and had not been since 1992—Pennsylvania’s other team, the Philadelphia Phillies, were. And with the Keystone State’s status as a key “swing state” in the 2008 election, the presidential candidates and their prospective running mates made stops in myriad cities and towns there during the summer and fall.

The intersection of politics and sports always will give rise to politicians trying to ingratiate themselves to the voter through the almost obligatory “I love your sports team(s)” line. This political fact led to one of the many interesting moments in the rise of Governor Sarah Palin into the national spotlight. While in Erie, a western Pennsylvania town, Palin uttered the line: “I am thrilled to be here in the home state of the world-champion Philadelphia Phillies.” The crowd booed Palin, showing that their allegiance lay with the Pirates, even though the state’s other team just won the most prestigious prize in professional baseball.

What does this brief aside have to do with the book, The Best Game Ever. Well, a minor coincidence: they played that game on the same day as the last Kennedy v. Nixon televised debate in another “historic” U.S. presidential election (1960). But, the real lesson: one should leave the sport lines to the experts. As far as Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1960s/1970s baseball, Reisler can claim expert status, which he does show clearly in The Best Game Ever. Reisler, whose family moved to Pittsburgh in 1960, does weave his narrative more from the Pittsburgh rather than from the New York cloth, and he makes no bones about whom he would have rooted for in 1960. (Reisler was two years old, but his father rooted for the Pirates that year. And the younger Reisler became an avid Pittsburgh Pirate fan.) Plus, historians and interested individuals have spilled plenty of ink on the Yankees’ teams from after World War II through the mid- 1960s, making this book a nice breath of fresh air for baseball recollections of that time period.

As someone whose firsthand baseball knowledge began with championship Yankees and Pirates clubs of the late 1970s, the author personally enjoyed a trip back to the 1960 Fall Classic. After the preface and prologue, Reisler organized the book into nine chapters, one for each of the game’s innings, concluding with “The Day After” or in today’s sports lexicon, a “post-game” chapter. This inningby-inning set up does allow the game to unfold organically and the tension to build similarly as it did for those watching the game in person or on TV or listening to it on the radio. But besides just retelling the game, pitch by pitch, Reisler takes the opportunity to provide context about the Pirates (and Yankees) players and coaches. Plus, Reisler furnishes readers’ glimpses at 1960s Pittsburgh. The author also furnishes pictures of the game’s key players and moments (albeit in the more traditional way—clumped in specific sections—instead of interspersed throughout the text) and recreates the most important illustration—the box score.

This review starts with the 1960s and present-day comparisons because Reisler does pepper his account with comparisons between 1960s and present-day baseball. He does stand firmly on the side of those who have felt the game has lost something with its late starts, longer running times, and less player allegiance to his team. Throughout the text, he notes the elapsed time of the game at certain junctures. He makes a point to note how fast this game progressed compared to current baseball games, in general, but to playoff games in particular. Again, Reisler has thrown in his lot with those baseball purists who see the three-to four-hour playoff...