Splendor on the Diamond (review)

Rich Westcott. Splendor on the Diamond. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. 332 pp. Cloth, $24.95.

Many sports historians generally acknowledge the period following the end of World War II as one of the most glorious eras of Major League baseball. For youngsters and adults who followed baseball during the late 1940s, through the 1950s, and into the early 1960s, it was an infinitely happy time. For each fan, there were memorable games, players, and events. In that decade and a half, Major League baseball underwent more important, far-reaching changes than at any other period in the game's history.

Of the myriad of changes ranging from franchise relocation, new ballparks, and television to the emergence of a powerful players' union, perhaps the most significant reform to the game's long and stationary structure was integration. The signing of Jackie Robinson in 1947 by the Brooklyn Dodgers broke a color line that for decades forced African American players to apply their craft in the so-called "inferior" Negro Leagues. Hispanic players also benefited from this resolve as greater numbers began to appear on Major League rosters. Each of these changes was fostered by events that transformed the composition of baseball and shaped its future.

In Splendor on the Diamond, Westcott attempts to re-create some of the spirit and flavor that surrounded Major League baseball and its players of an earlier time. Through interviews, the author provides a glimpse of players' careers as well as their contributions, thoughts, and viewpoints on the game for succeeding generations of fans unable to experience the postwar era. The work affords readers the opportunity to learn about events that changed the game they know from stories and images conveyed by the players who experienced and helped implement change.

The book profiles thirty-five players, dividing them into groups: "Hall of Famers," "Especially Noteworthy," and "Around the Bases." Lacking, however, is a sound rationale for the selection of players as representative of the era; the only rationale is that "all [players] have easily recognizable names, and all performed outstanding deeds" (p.3). Granted, those players in the Hall of Famers grouping—Lou Boudreau, Al Kaline, Billy Williams, Juan Marichal, and others—are easily recognized. Non-Hall of Famers, such as Dick Sisler, Ralph Branca, John Roseboro, and Jimmy Piersall, are also well known. But to the average baseball fan, names such as Ned Garver, Ray Narleski, Granny Hammer, and Gus Zermal are somewhat obscure.

This leaves the reader to surmise that player selection was made based on outstanding deeds, whether one or many, that in the author's view best reflect and convey baseball during this era. While interviews present a diverse flavor of baseball's evolution during the author's defined period, many player recollections provide only bits and pieces that give real insight into the game of an earlier era. Westcott begins each player profile with a miniature statistical and career biography, but there is little explanation or direction as to the significance of player deeds or contribution to baseball. For example, Eddie Mathews is identified as "one of the game's best third basemen" (p.71), yet there is no real insight as to what playing third base was like, even for Mathews, or how or why he was a good hitter. Mathews was one of very few players to play during each of the author's three decades, yet the reader doesn't learn how playing third base changed, if at all, during the era. Mathews stated, "Learning to field took a lot of work. I always played third base—even as a kid. Don't ask me why. The coach just said, 'you play third.' But I wasn't a very good fielder originally" (p.74). The reader might like to know how Mathews got better or how he learned to play third base effectively at the Major League level.

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