Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Season of Shattered Dreams:
No more buses on mountains for me.
Quick synopsis:
The story of the deadliest accident in American professional sports where a baseball team’s bus crashed off a mountain in 1946.
Fact for Non-History People:
More than 500 major leaguers served in World War II.
Fact for History Nerds:
Baseball minor leagues dropped from 44 to 10 during the war.
My Take on Season of Shattered Dreams:
I try not to reinvent the wheel when a book has a perfect title so I think Season of Shattered Dreams by Eric Vickrey is exactly what you expect it to be. The book looks at the 1946 season of a baseball team which is horribly derailed by a bus accident that kills multiple players. While the bus crash is the major event of the book, there is a lot more to it.
I am giving this book high marks with the caveat that this is for baseball lovers. Vickrey tells the story of multiple players and their paths through baseball. At this time, it wasn’t quite what we know today with MLB and its minor league system. Free agency didn’t exist and choice for the players was in short supply. As I said, for the baseball lover looking to learn a little bit more about the history of the game, this is catnip. Vickrey looks specifically at two players post-crash and that takes up the last 20% of the book. It is sad but also enjoyable.
(This book was provided as a review copy by the author.)
Verdict:
A must for baseball nerds. Buy it here!
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