Baseball's Shining Season: America's Pastime on the Brink of War

In 1941, as America stood on the brink of World War II, the country was in sore need of a diversion at home. They found exactly that on the baseball diamond, where the rivalry between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees captivated fans as superstars Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio went head to head, breaking every record imaginable.

But the pastime known as "America's game" wasn't really a game that welcomed everyone: Black citizens were segregated into the widely dismissed Negro Leagues, and though women had played baseball for years, they struggled for acceptance and to establish a professional league of their own. As the country reached a turning point, so, too, did the sport of baseball--and after 1941, neither would ever be the same.

Through extensive archival photographs and thrilling accounts of the game and the country that became obsessed with it, Martin W. Sandler and Craig Sandler vividly portray the season that would change baseball forever.